New Blood
by Firebane5
Summary: Shaman King story with a twist, warning OC centric. Give it a go even if you don't like OC's I'm pretty sure I've kept everyone in character. DISCONTINUED.
1. Proulog

New Blood 

What will happen when the SK gang encounter a new shaman who appears to have broken into Yoh's house, and why is Hao so interested in this new shaman? Contains a few OC's but still has your favourite SK characters.

* * *

Prologue:

It was dull grey day; you know the type. The air is hot and humid making it impossible to go anywhere without getting drenched despite the fact it's not raining. Even though it's only 1pm the streets are deserted and only the vague illumination from office windows show that there are actually people in the town.

A man suddenly exits one of the buildings and starts on a brisk walk, but soon slows down due to the humidity. He is wearing a grey suit which is beginning to turn black due the moisture in the air and he is carrying a black briefcase, which he keeps glancing at every few seconds as if to check that it's still there.

A roll of thunder is heard in the clouds and it begins rain, the man starts running seeking any kind of shelter, eventually he spots a bus stop and rushes over to get out of the rain. He sits down and places his briefcase on his lap and starts to open it…

"Your not helping"

The man looks round startled because he had thought the bus stop to be empty, but in the corner was a figure in a dark grey rain coat.

"I beg your pardon" said the man but the figure just ignored him.

Curious the man turned round for a closer look at the figure and was surprised to see that it was a boy who looked to be around 15 years old, with jet black hair which was soaking wet and covered the top of his face, but the man could also see that the boy had ice blue eyes that seemed to focused on some point on the ceiling. The man glanced at the ceiling but saw nothing. He glanced back at the boy and was just thinking that he could use a haircut when the boy spoke suddenly, his voice full of venom.

"When I want your opinion I'll ask for it"

The man was shocked, he was sure he hadn't said anything and was about to offer an apology when he realised that the boy had not addressed him but seemed to talking to a patch of space near the ceiling.

The boy twisted his head suddenly as if he had only just realised that the man was there and gave him a cold glare until he got up and left.

* * *

"Really master if you had wanted to get wet we could have just stayed home, I don't see why we had to pay all this money to come and get wet in Japan." The voice belonged to what appeared at first to be a suit of Japanese armour hanging in the air but then a metallic hand reached up and removed a face guard to reveal a face that seemed to have been in a battle field recently; the face was covered in scars and the eyes were a deep black and looked as if they were over a thousand years old. At the warrior spirits waist was what appeared to be a katana; the type of sword used by ancient Japanese samurai. The face appeared to be Japanese although it could have just as easily been Chinese.

The warrior's mouth suddenly twitched into a smile at his masters response.

"Your not helping" replied the ghost's master in a dull monotone. A boy who appeared to be around 15 but could have easily been mistaken for much older, his eyes were ice blue and had a dark quality to them which seemed to suggest that the boy had seen too much of the darker things in life.

"Sorry master I just thought that I should inform you that this is not the wisest form of action you have taken. I humbly request that we go and seek a better form of shelter, preferably one where you may get the rest that you require"

"When I want your opinion I'll ask for it" was the boys reply, his voice full of venom. He suddenly heard a movement to his left and noticed a man had entered the bus stop presumably seeking shelter just as he had. At the moment however the boy did not feel like sharing the small space the bus stop provided and gave the man a cold glare; the kind he had used so many times in the past. The man shifted uncomfortably under the boys gaze and eventually got up collected his briefcase and walked back out into the rain.

"That was not very polite, you could have easily shared the space with him" he heard his ghost say, the boy scowled and seemed about to reply but he paused and seemed to take a moment to collect himself and when he spoke his voice had returned to the calm tone he had used earlier.

"Nice try Zhou but you won't make me angry that easily so enough of your mind games, lets go and find some place to rest"

" I thought you didn't need to rest"

" I don't, but I have no doubt that the man I just sent out into the rain will go inform the local authorities that there is a boy at this bus stop who is delirious and is muttering to himself, so lets go"

* * *

Earlier that day:

" Aww come on guys it's the coolest film this year" cried Horo jumping around the room in excitement.

"I'll go with you Trey" Manta announced" I've been wanting to see this movie for ages, what about you Rio?"

"I think not little man, I have better things to do that sit in a little theatre and watch an oversized TV" said Rio

"Like what?" muttered his green guardian ghost the ex-thief Tokageru

"I have lots of important things to do!" cried Rio jumping up from his seat "first I have to…"

"But Rio it's got biker chicks in it" said Manta slyly

"On second thoughts maybe I could make room in my busy schedule" said Rio causing everyone in the room to sweat drop anime style.

"Excellent Rio's in, how about you Ren?" asked Horohoro

"I'd rather not waste my time watching you buffoons throw popcorn at a each other" Ren said with his usual scepticism.

"But there are some really cool fight scenes and main character uses a weapon that's almost exactly like your Kwan-do, you might learn some new moves" said Horo trying to persuade Ren

" I doubt I'd ever learn anything from a movie" muttered Ren darkly, although he now seemed quite interested

Just then Yoh opens the front door; he is panting heavily and is carrying an armful of grocery's that Anna had ordered him to get within the next 20 minutes or there would be "dire" consequences

"How'd I do?" Yoh gasped

"Not bad Yoh you actually did it with 4 minutes to spare" replied Manta checking his watch

"Oh thank god I thought I was done for" said Yoh dropping onto a couch

"But Manta isn't your watch 5 minutes slow" said Horo

"Oh yeah" replied Manta now looking slightly worried

"Yoh you're one minute late so why are you lying down on the couch when I need that food to cook dinner?" It was Anna, Yoh's fiancée her voice had a cold and deadly edge to it.

"Well you see Anna I just…"

SLAP

"How do you expect to me cook dinner without any food? Do you want our guests to go hungry?" Said Anna indicating to everyone in the room (Ren, Manta, Horohoro, Rio, Choco, Jun, Pilika, Tamao)

You're right Anna you do way too much around the house you should have a night off" said Manta quickly trying to get Yoh out of trouble "we could all go and see this movie" said Manta "it will be nice and relaxing what do you say?"

"No" replied Anna flatly

"Come on Anna you'll enjoy it" pleaded Yoh picking up on Manta's ploy "and how about after the movie we all go out for dinner my treat, you won't have to cook or clean, come on Anna please"

Anna was silent for a while but in the end agreed. So just as the gang were getting all ready to go Anna told Yoh " This is a very nice thing your doing Yoh"

"Well I thought you deserved a day off after a all your hard work"

"Thanks Yoh but you still owe me 8000 push ups, 5000 sit ups and 6000 laps around the block for coming back late and don't forget to lock the door.

* * *

Author: Nearly forgot the disclaimer, I will only do this once because I know I won't remember to this in later chapters so this applies to all chapter of "New Blood"

I do not own Shaman King or any of its characters except for the ones I make myself


	2. 1: Unwelcome Guest

Chapter 1: Unwelcome Guest

"What about this place master?" suggested Zhou gesturing towards a large building which seemed to be an Inn despite the fact it only had two floors

"Would you drop the "master" part, I don't see why you insist on using these old fashioned titles, I have a name you know, why don't you use it?"

"That would not be correct" answered Zhou sternly

"Very well have it your way, lets go and see if they any spare rooms"

The boy marched through the rain towards the building that his guardian ghost had suggested. He was soaked to the skin and truth to tell he have stopped under a billboard sign if his guardian ghost had suggested it.

He walked up to the front door and knocked, there was no reply he knocked twice more before he attempted to open the front door, which yielded freely.

Puzzled the boy walked inside and began to take in his surroundings. It was fashioned in typical Japanese style; that is to say there was no sort of furniture anywhere since people in Japan seemed quite content to sit on the floor all the time. He then walked around a corner and realised that he was mistaken; at the back of the new room was an extremely large couch and opposite the couch was what looked liked a T.V. although he couldn't be sure because it looked older than Zhou.

"Hello anyone home?" he called. There was no reply.

"Zhou do you sense anyone in there?" whispered the young shaman

"No master no one, not even a human"

"Strange why would they leave without locking the door?"

"I'm not sure master. It does not seem to be what you would call a logical course of action"

"Indeed not but don't concern yourself Zhou I'm sure we'll find out in due time". He moved away from his spirit, placed his belongings in the front hallway and started to explore the rest of building.

"Does that mean you intend to stay master?"

"Well I have no intention of going back outside until it stops raining _(roll of thunder)_ and it seems that may take a while". Something on the floor caught the boy's eye and he bent down to pick it up. It was a book titled "Worlds funniest jokes"

"May I suggest master that you take this opportunity to get some rest, I shall alert you when the owner returns"

"All in good time my friend I wish to explore a little more, and if you call me "master" one more time I shall lock you in your memorial tablet for a week" answered the shaman while leafing through the book he had picked up.

"My apologies Sensei"

"Was that a joke Zhou?" asked the boy looking up at his companion with a strange expression on his face.

"Yes Sensei was it not amusing?" replied the warrior spirit frowning

"Well it was better than this rubbish" said the shaman indicating towards the book " I don't see how people can find this amusing" he tossed the book down in disgust and moved into another room; this one had a bed and was covered in posters of what appeared to the boy to be pictures of the same frozen Mountain from different angles there was also… "a snowboard, who would bring a snowboard to Japan in the middle of summer?" said the shaman his brow knitted with confusion.

"Actually Sensei I do believe that the altitude of the Japanese mountains ensures that…" started Zhou but he was cut short by his masters yawn.

"Whatever look I'm going to get some rest why don't you just keep look out, whoever lives here has got to comeback sooner or later"

"Sensei one thing has occurred to me, what will you tell the owners when they come back?"

" Don't worry Zhou I'll think of something, after all they owe me a favour "

" They do?" replied the warrior spirit in shock

"Yes I'm guarding their home, the least they could do is let me spend one night"

"I'm not sure that will work Sensei" Zhou started to say before realising that his master had already fallen asleep".

* * *

"I'll see you guys later, Pailong and I are going to head back to get some sleep" said the green haired Dojshi 

"How can you even think about sleep after watching that movie" Cried Horo in amazement "I mean that Ninja dude kicked ass and don't even get me started on the special effects"

"Actually I found it quite boring, I don't see what's interesting about a man in a black suit beating other guys to a pulp" said Jun stifling a yawn

"Whatever, hey Ren your sister is weird" said Horo in disbelief

Jun turned around and winced as she heard the stick end of her brothers Kwan-do connect with Horo's face. _When would her brother learn not to take things so seriously?_ She thought to herself.

"Hey dude what was that for!" exclaimed Horo

"To teach you a lesson" replied Ren with deceptive calmness

"And what lessons that?" said Horo angrily

"To not insult a Tao"

"What are talking about spike head all I said was OW!" Ren had hit Horo with Kwan-do again, with considerable more force than last time. Horo then got up and started calling Ren more names and the two would have started fighting had their friends not restrained them.

Jun sighed _some things never change_, she collected the door key from Yoh and made her way back to the Asakura house with Lee Pailong.

Running through the rain Jun made it back Yoh's house surprisingly quickly and had just made it to the shelter of the front door when the rain suddenly stopped

"Typical" muttered Jun silently cursing the Japanese weather.

"Is something wrong Jun" asked Pailong his voice full of concern

"What, Oh no I was thinking out loud could you please open the door. I did give you the key didn't I?"

"Yes Jun you did" said Pailong walking up to the and as he inserted the key into the door which then seemed to open of its own accord.

"Looks like Yoh forget to lock the door again" said Jun smiling ruefully "it's a good thing I got here first otherwise Anna would have killed him" Jun then stepped into the hallway and noticed a dark rain coat drying above a pair of soaking wet trainers that she didn't recognise.

"Pailong" she whispered, " I think we have an uninvited guest"

"Don't worry Jun I'll take of it" Answered Pailong bowing as he walked away to search for the intruder.

* * *

"Master wake up" Zhou hissed in his masters ear 

"Huh? What's going on?" muttered the shaman sleepily

"Master I believe that the owner has arrived, but he does not appear very hospitable you may be in danger"

"Very well what do you advise?"

"I humbly suggest that we unify so that we may deal with the problem if it arises, I also request that you let me do the talking as you do have a tendency to…"

"To what?" asked the master darkly

"Well you do have a habit of escalating problems master"

To Zhou's surprise his master laughed.

"Yes I suppose I do don't I? Very well we shall unify but I will do the talking. Don't look so glum Zhou if I didn't as you say "escalate" problems then we would both be out of shape"

"Please master try to be polite" begged Zhou as he unified with his master

"I shall be as polite to him as he is to me" was the shaman's reply.

* * *

Pailong advanced warily through the house, his senses tuned to detect anything out of the ordinary. After inspecting the kitchen and the main living area he heard a door open to his right and saw a figure outlined in the doorway of Horo's room 

"Who are you, identify yourself" ordered the manservant

The figure just stared at him for a moment before asking, "are you the owner of this place?"

"No but I…"

"Then why are you barking orders as if you do?" said the intruder cutting Pailong off in mid sentence.

" I want you to leave the premises right now" said Pailong ignoring the intruders comment

"You have no right to ask me to leave" replied the intruder arrogantly

"If you will not leave peacefully then I shall be forced to evacuate you from the premises" said Pailong cracking his knuckles threateningly

"Don't bother you wouldn't stand a chance against me"

"You leave me no choice" said the manservant darkly, and he jumped forward sending a thundering left hook that should have connected with the intruders jaw; except that the intruder was no longer there. Pailong suddenly felt something cannon into his left side and was sent reeling across the floor. Momentarily dazed he looked up to see the intruder standing above him with his arms across his chest.

"I told you" was all he said

Clearing his head Pailong jumped to his feet and started a 10 hit combo attack that should have rendered all but the toughest humans unconscious, but the intruder moved swiftly and managed to evade or block each attack, coming to the end of his combo Pailong aimed a roundhouse kick at the intruders head. Instead of dodging the attack the intruder stepped forward to meet it and seized Pailongs foot an inch from his face and then threw him into the hall way.

Pailong slowly got up on his feet and from the lights in the hallway was able to see the intruder clearly for the first time and was shocked to see it was a boy that looked only slightly older than mistress Jun's brother Ren.

_This can't be happening I'm Lee Pailong one of the greatest martial artists in the world, and yet this punk is treating each of my attacks as though they're nothing. I haven't been this outclassed since Yoh Asakura united himself with the spirit of my old sensei._

"Pailong be careful he's a shaman" cried Jun in alarm.

The boy suddenly stopped and looked at Jun who retreated to the kitchen, the boy went to follow her but was cut off by Pailong.

"Stay away from her" he said adopting his fighting pose and getting ready for the next attack, but it didn't come...

"Your not human" said the boy also seeing Pailong clearly for the first time; there was no surprise in his voice, it was just a statement, as though the thought that Pailong was a walking corpse was completely normal to him. Although now that Pailong thought about it he hadn't seen the boy express any kind of emotion since he had first encountered him.

"Well that makes things easier" said the boy matter-of-factly

"What do you mean" replied Pailong his voice apprehensive

"Oh nothing, I just won't have to worry about killing you now since your not even alive in the first place, alright Zhou lets finish this up I need to get something to eat"

Pailong saw in a split second what the shaman was about to do and barely had time to defend himself; as it was the force of the attack sent him crashing through the front door and out into the rain where he quickly lost consciousness.

"Now that's done lets get some food" the boy said to himself as he disengaged from spirit unity and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

"Master" said Zhou quickly

"What is it Zhou?"

"I just thought you would be interested to know that the green haired girl that ran in there a few moments ago is waiting around the corner with a knife" replied Zhou gesturing towards the kitchen.

"Well we'll have to do something about that won't we? I'll need your help for this Zhou"

"Of course master" replied Zhou bowing

"Good then get into the amulet" Zhou obliged and the boy walked up to the kitchen doorway and stopped just short of the entrance and started talking.

* * *

Author: well that's my first chapter andI have a favour to ask. I've been searching the internet andI haven't been able to find anything on any of Hao's followers, so if you could please send me any info that you haveregarding them please send it to me either in a review or an email, it will allow me to update a lot quicker. 


	3. 2: Calm Down

Chapter 2: Calm Down

Jun was terrified, her guardian was being beaten to a pulp by a kid that looked as if he was a few apples short of a tree; his hair was dirty and tangled and covered the top half of his face and he obviously been out on the street for a while; his jean were muddy and his black polo shirt was ripped in several places.

If Pailong couldn't stop him then there was no way that she would be able to do anything, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. She ran into the kitchen and pulled out the longest knife's she could find and waited at the entrance to the kitchen.

She heard the fight go on in the hall and felt the house shake when the young shaman summoned his guardian spirit to deliver the final blow to Lee Pailong. The fact that he had defeated Pailong so easily by only using spirit unity told Jun that the shaman was strong but she could still catch him unawares if she was fast enough.

Jun saw his shadow approach the kitchen and was just getting ready to attack when he stopped and said

"I'm not going to hurt you"

"Why should I believe you?" hissed Jun

"You shouldn't really" said the boy "After all I did just take out your guardian, although I don't think I damaged him that much. You should have him up and about again in no time."

"Why did you attack him?" asked Jun

"I didn't he attacked me" replied the boy casually

"liar" Hissed Jun "Why would he do that"

"Huh…" the boy sighed and Jun thought she detected some disappointment

"I see we're not going to get anywhere like this" remarked the boy "I don't suppose there is anyway I could get you to give me the knife?"

"No if you want it that badly you'll have to come and get yourself"

"If you insist" was the cold reply

Jun felt a cold breeze blow past her and suddenly two arms wrapped round her from behind and lifted her off the ground, she tried to struggle but couldn't seem to break free.

"Drop the knife" said the boy again

_What the, how did he get behind me? There's no way he could have gotten past without me seeing him _thought Jun frantically as she struggled to get free while at the same time replying

"No"

"Huh…" the boy sighed again and Jun gasped as she felt the boys arms tighten around her, she struggled harder but soon stopped so that she could concentrate on breathing; the boy was crushing the life out of her!

"Just drop the knife what have you got to lose?" whispered the boy in her ear, his voice was no longer cold, in fact it seemed worried.

_He's right _thought Jun and she obediently dropped the knife.

Instantly the arms released her and she fell to floor gasping for breath.

"There now that wasn't so hard was it?" asked the boy picking up the knife and throwing it up in the air where it got stuck in the ceiling out of Jun's reach. He stopped talking when he realised that Jun was still on floor and was hardly moving.

"Are you all right?" asked the young shaman his voice full of concern.

There was no reply, the boy slowly walked up to her inert figure and flipped her onto her back to check that she was all right…

"Master look out!" cried Zhou

The shaman blinked in surprise as he saw a knife a few inches from his throat, but this wasn't what surprised him, what surprised him was the fact was that his own hand had moved to block the knife thrust seemingly of its own accord.

"Good job Zhou" the young shaman breathed, before tuning his attention to the green haired girl who was struggling to free her wrist from his grasp.

"Calm down I am not going to hurt you" he said, the girl ignored him and continued to struggle.

"Huh…" the boy sighed again, he grabbed the girls other wrist with his free hand and sat on top of her pinning her to the floor.

"Relax, I've already told you I'm not going to hurt you so drop the knife"

The girl just glared at him and continued to struggle. _Looks like I'm going to have to do this the hard way _thought the boy.

"Look at me" the boy said in a calm and reassuring tone. The girl immediately turned her head left and right to avoid eye contact.

A look of annoyance crossed the boy's features and he placed the girls arms across her chest and wrestled both her arms under his left hand so that his right hand was now free. He placed it under her chin and forced her to turn and look at him.

The boys voice suddenly changed; it became deeper, more powerful and as he spoke Jun felt that she couldn't disobey.

"Look into my eyes" the boy ordered, Jun did so and noticed that his eyes were a startling ice blue, as she continued to stare she noticed the colours of the iris seemed to swirl and dance and then she realised she couldn't look away.

"I'm not going to hurt you, you're perfectly safe, so relax" the boy told her his voice softening as he spoke. He felt her muscles loosen beneath him and she stopped struggling.

"Very good" the boy said as though speaking to child "now what's your name?" he asked the girl. She gazed at him silently for a moment before replying

"Jun"

"That's a pretty name, now Jun do you believe me when I say I'm not going to hurt you?" The girl bobbed her head slightly as an indication that she did.

"Then could you please let go of the knife" it was a request not an order and Jun complied. "Very good" the boy said again "Now Jun I'm going to let you get up and when you do you will be calm and perfectly relaxed, you will not be frightened or nervous understand?"

The girl nodded her head vaguely and the boy sighed and seemed to relax when…

"GET OFF MY SISTER!"

* * *

Author: well what do think, any constructive criticism will be welcome as well as any ideas you might have so please Review


	4. 3: Misunderstandings

Chapter 3: Misunderstandings

Ren couldn't believe what he was seeing; first there Lee Pailong lying unconscious on top of the front doorwhich seemed to have blown off its hinges by some kind of explosion and then he walks into the kitchen and sees some guy sitting on top of his sister pinning her to the floor and looking as though he was about to rape her. Ren responded in the only way he knew how;with anger.

He ran at the figure sitting on top of his sister and hit him in the head with the blunt side of his Kwan-do with such force that the figure broke through two walls before finally coming to a stop outside.

Ren glanced quickly at his sister and noticed that she looked dazed, but other than that seemed all right and headed outside after his opponent.

"Master are you alright?" asked Zhou

"Uh I think so, why didn't you warn me that there were others coming?"

"My apologies master I let my guard down"

"Yeah well don't make a habit of it" said the boy rising unsteadily to his feet, he took a deep breath while observing his surroundings and saw that he was standing in front of a group kids who seemed to be slightly younger than he was, he then noticed that several of them appeared to have a ghost hovering nearby. _So they're shaman_ the boy thought to himself, _this could complicate matters._

"Um excuse but who are you and why did you just come flying through that wall" one of the kids asked. He had brown hair, which didn't quite reach down to his shoulders and was wearing a pair of orange headphones around his neck.

Before the newcomer could answer Ren stepped through the newly made doorway with a scowl on his face saying

"He's a piece of scum Asakura and the reason he came flying through the wall is because I found him trying to force himself on my sister"

The other shaman instantly oversouled with their spirits and were getting ready to attack.

"Dude that is so not cool" said a kid with spiky blue hair

"Yeah I think Tokageru and I should teach you some manners" said a guy with the biggest quiff the newcomer had ever seen.

_This doesn't look good,_ thought the boy as he calculated his odds of beating six armed shaman without any kind of weapon. "Any ideas Zhou?"

"Try and talk your way out there's no way you can't fight them without your weapon" said the spirit while trying to keep his eyes on all the shaman at once. Failing that try and get one of the shaman into a one on one fight and try and steal their weapon or retrieve your own.

"Okay we'll try the diplomatic approach first" answered the shaman.

He got up and raised his hands saying:

"Look this all just a big misunderstanding if you give me a chance to explain…"

But Ren would have none it "misunderstanding my foot I know what I saw and I'm going to make you pay for it" the other kids started closing in on the newcomer who stood his ground while staring at Ren.

"I don't want to fight you" hetold Ren.

"Too bad, you haven't got a choice" said Ren advancing on the newcomer.

_Oh well time for plan B, _he thought "what are all six of you going to gang up on me?" he said to them, they slowed down but didn't stop.

"What's the matter is an unarmed opponent to much for you to handle?" he said directing his question at Ren with a sneer on his face

"You guys stay out of this, he's mine!" cried Ren taking the bait and jumping forward with his Kwan-do, aiming a vertical slash at the newcomer's chest but missed as his opponent dived to his right and rolled onto his feet to face the next attack.

Ren scowled and yelled "Bason! Into the Kwan-do, "Rapid Tempo Assault""

Ren shot forward his arms a blur as he repeatedly struck out at his opponent, tearing his shirt and cutting his arms and legs. Ren finished the attack by swinging his Kwan-do two-handedly with earth shattering force which sent his opponent flying through the air until he crashedinto a tree. Amazing the newcomerregained his feet and started taunting Ren "Come on is that the best you got, I've had worse scratches from kittens"

Ren blinded by rage lunged for his opponents stomach as though trying to spear him but the newcomer simply side stepped and Rens momentum caused his Kwan-do to get stuck in the tree that his opponent had been knocked into.

While Ren wrestled with his Kwan-do, the newcomer turned and ran back towards the house but was cut off by the other Shaman.

"Where do you think you're going?" the blue haired kid asked

"Inside" muttered the lone shaman; he didn't stop running but just before he ran into the other shaman he disappeared from sight and the SK gang felt a cold wind blow past them.

"Huh? Where'd he go?" Horo asked the others

"I don't know" said Rio confused

"He's behind us" said Yoh calmly. The whole gang turned round and sure enough the newcomer was behind them and had run into the house.

"Hey Yoh if you knew where he was why did you let get him past us?" asked Manta surprised by Yoh's actions.

"Well I thought he had a right to defend himself" said Yoh in his usual care free manner.

"What! Yoh are you thinking straight" yelled Horo

"He didn't seem like a bad person to me" replied Yoh, "he didn't want to fight us and Ren didn't give a chance to explain what he was doing, I just don't see why we should attack him when we don't know the whole story".

"Yoh did you hear what he was he doing to Jun" said Choco looking at Yoh as if he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

"He didn't do anything to me" Jun had finally managed to get up and make her way over to the others. She seemed unnaturally calm and looked as though she wasn't completely aware of what was happening around her.

"Jun are you alright" Tamao squeaked

"Yes I feel fine" answered Jun her voice still showing no sign of emotion. She turned and started making her way over to the unconscious Lee Pailong.

"See I told you" said Yoh triumphantly "and I bet if we listened to his side of story everything will make perfect sense" Yoh beamed at the rest of the gang.

"Yoh how can be so sure that everything will turn out all right" said Manta looking at his friend in a puzzled way.

"I just have a hunch" he told them

"Well if you wish to listen to the strangers side of the story I suggest that we stop young Ren right now while he is preoccupied" Rio said to the group "Otherwise he may not be around to tell us"

Suddenly a shadow passed overhead and they all looked up to see the newcomer somersaulting over their heads and land in front of them with his back to the group and his eyes focused on Len.

"Somehow Rio I don't think we're going to have to worry about that" said Yoh, the newcomer was now dressed in a dark grey rain coat that covered most of his figure but a sheathed sword could be seen at his side with one hand resting on the hilt. The sword appeared to be similar to the katana that Yoh used but it looked slightly longer and hilt was decorated with the head of a dragon with what appeared to be opals set in the eyes.

Ren finally managed to free his Kwan-do from the tree and turned to face his opponent who was now armed. Ren sneered at the sheathed sword at his opponent's side and said "Are you planning to use that or is it just for show?"

"You'll see" replied his opponent and he grasped the hilt tightly and pulled it out of its scabbard.

Ren was hard put not to laugh when he saw that all his opponent was holding was the hilt of a sword; there was no blade. "How are you going to fight with that?" he asked his voice full of contempt.

In response his opponent shouted "Zhou into the Hilt! Aura Blade" as he said this the opals set in the dragons eyes on the hilt of the sword flashed and a dull green light began to appear as the newcomer traced with his hand the space where the swords blade should have been, the light got brighter and solidified itself into the shape of a blade with a glowing green edge.

The newcomer held the sword at his side leaving himself completely open to attack and with his other hand gestured for Ren to attack.

"Arrogant fool" snarled Ren "I'll teach you not to underestimate me, Rapid Tempo Assault" Ren Immediately launched forward attempting to skewer his opponent in a dozen places as he had done before.

His opponent didn't move, just before Rens firstlunge reached him hebrought his sword arm up and moved it in a blurring pattern that blocked each of Rens attacks.

Ren jumped back, surprised that his attack had been dismissed so easily, but his surprise was quickly replaced by anger and he charged his opponent again, holding his Kwan-do as if he were going to attempt a horizontal slash but changed at the last minute into another lunge. His opponent swiftly raised his sword and parried the attack, causing Ren to loose balance and stumble face first into his opponents elbow which sent sprawling across the ground"

"You need to calm down" the stranger told him "how do you expect to focus on your attacks when you allow your emotions to run rampant inside you?"

"You dare lecture me on how I should fight?" yelled Ren angrily he ran forwards and aimed an attack at the strangers head, but his opponent raised his sword to block the attack and locked their weapons so that they were face to face.

(Ren saw his opponent clearly for the first time. He looked to be only slightly older than himself; he had jet-black hair, which at the moment was covering the top half of his face and Ren could only just make out that he had blue eyes. His features didn't appear to be Japanese or Chinese; in fact he appeared to be European.)

"Well you obviously need the lesson" replied his opponent. As they struggled against each other to try and gain an upper hand Rens opponent suddenly lashed out with a kick that connected with Rens midriff and forced back by about 10 feet.

"Shadow Strike!" the stranger yelled slashing at the air with his sword; which emitted an arc of black light that hurtled towards Ren, who was unable to evade it in time and got hit with the full force of the attack full and was sent flying into a tree. He slid to the ground and lay there for a few seconds before he got up slowly, shaking his head while at the same time saying "Please tell me that's no the best you've… huh? Where'd you go?" he looked around frantically for his opponent and shouted, "I order you to show yourself"

It was at that moment that the wind picked up and Ren was suddenly grabbed from behind, he tried to struggle but stopped when he felt a cold blade press against his throat…

* * *

Author: wow another chapter done I'm starting to enjoy this. Don't worry if you think that my character is a little too powerful, at this stage in the story the SK gang are quite weak. Anyway he'll get his comeuppance when he meets Hao. 

Anyway please Review i can see that a lot of people have reading this story but no one has reviewed yet and i would like to know what you think of it so far


	5. 4: Introductions

Chapter 4: Introductions

"Disengage your Over Soul and drop your weapon, in that order" whispered the stranger in Rens ear, while restraining him with one hand and holding his blade to Rens throat with the other.

"No"

"Do you have a death wish or something?" muttered the stranger

"I won't admit defeat to the likes of you" Ren hissed gripping his Kwan-do firmly

"Your willing to face death because of your pride? The stranger said to Ren in disgust "Do you really have so little to live for that you would rather die that admit defeat to someone better than you?"

"Your not better than…" Ren started to say angrily but was cut off when the stranger applied more pressure to Rens throat.

"Maybe you haven't noticed but I'm the one with a blade at your throat not the other way around, I think that qualifies me as being better than you" the stranger told a furious Ren, "Now I'm being generous because I don't think your sister would appreciate seeing you die here unable to defend yourself. So give up, you can always challenge me to a rematch later."

Ren was silent for a moment and the stranger could tell he was thinking it over, when he didn't reply the stranger added, "if you disengage your Over Soul right now I'll release you and we'll call it draw"

At this remark Rens anger came storming back as he cried, "I don't need your pity I'll take care of you right here and now, Bason Attack!" Ren shoved his Kwan-do behind him as strongly as he could and the Stranger, caught by surprise was sent flying through the air before flipping up and landing on his feet.

The stranger didn't look angry he just seemed and annoyed and he remarked to Ren "I've come to the conclusion that your family are extremely stubborn, you won't ever admit that your wrong until someone shows you proof, so it looks as though I'm going to have to prove to you that I'm better than you" He raised his sword and shouted "Zhou, Spirit Blade!"

The opals set into the dragons eyes on the sword hilt flashed once more and the blade changed from green to blue and the blade became slightly translucent.

* * *

The SK gang watched in fascination as the fight between the two shaman progressed and when the stranger had Ren by the throat, Horo and Rio rushed forward to help but were stopped by Anna who banged their heads together anime style and reminded them that Ren wanted to fight alone, Anna then continued to bash their heads together until they stopped arguing with her.

* * *

The two shaman faced each other for some time without moving, then as if responding to some unseen signal began to charge towards to each other, weapons raised for one final attack. 

Ren ran as fast as he could towards his opponent, anger coursing through his veins and as he came level swung his Kwan-do in a diagonal slash so that his opponent couldn't side step it but his opponent met the attack head on and amazingly parried it with his sword using only one hand, then with a shock of horror Ren saw his opponents blade lancing towards his throat, the last thing Ren saw before the blow was flash of blue light, then he crumpled to the ground unconscious.

The stranger exhaled and blue blade of his sword disappeared he sheathed the hilt and turned to see Ren lying on the ground.

"REN!" screamed everyone in the SK gang as they rushed towards their fallen comrade they gathered round him and let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw him start to move.

"Uh… what happened?" he said groggily to the others but it was the stranger who replied, "You lost so deal with it". The gang turned round again and focused on the newcomer with dark expressions.

Sensing that the group was about to attack the stranger drew his weapon and summoned his blue blade…

"Stop This At Once!" a figure leapt out of a tree to stand between the gang and the stranger

"Hey Silva what are you doing here?" Yoh asked "I thought the preliminary matches were over"

"They finished yesterday, but it is still my duty to watch over the shaman that are participating in the tournament, and I am afraid I cannot allow you to fight any longer"

"You have no right to stop us" Len told the shaman council representative, as he got back on his feet "this isn't an official tournament battle"

"No it isn't, but I still have the power to disqualify the loser of any fight from the tournament" Silva told Ren eyeing him darkly "and as you have already been beaten once I suggest you step down, besides you have no reason to fight"

"What do you mean no reason" Ren yelled angrily "He was forcing himself on my sister! I think that… "

"No he wasn't" Silva said quietly, cutting Ren off, "you came in on them in the middle of a fight with no idea of how they got there, you didn't ask what had happened, you just assumed you knew what happened, and you were wrong"

Ren looked as though he was about to explode and gripped his Kwan-do tightly as if he was planning to attack Silva but Yoh got between them and tried to calm Ren down,

"Come on Ren, there's no reason to get angry why don't we just hear the guy out, at least that way we'll know what happened" Yoh said trying to persuade his friend

Ren was silent for a moment before he said "How do we now if he'll tell the truth?"

"Just what are you implying" the stranger began, but Anna interrupted him and told Ren,

"We'll know because I can tell when people are lying", Anna said. The others stared at her for a minute and she began to look annoyed.

"It's part of the basic training to become an Ikato, you have to be able to tell when people or spirits are trying to deceive you" she said eyeing them coldly and they all looked away

"Fine then we'll listen to what he has to say but if don't like what he says I'll wipe the floor with him"

The stranger upon hearing Rens last statement chuckled to himself darkly. Ren heard him and wheeled round to face him saying, "What's so funny?"

"You are" the stranger said to Ren "After the little skirmish we just had I find it quite amusing that you think you'll be able to "wipe the floor with me""

Ren attempted to attack the stranger again but was restrained by his friends and they dragged him back inside. One kid stayed behind though; he was wearing a white T-shirt and had a pair of orange headphones hanging on his neck.

He looked at Silva and asked, "Are you planning on sticking around? We've got plenty of room"

"No thank you" replied Silva "I have important business elsewhere" the representative then walked off down the street and was quickly swallowed up by the darkness.

Yoh shrugged, walked up to the stranger and offered his hand saying,

"Hi there, my names Yoh Asakura and this is my guardian spirit Amidamaru, sorry about my friend Ren he can get a little carried away sometimes"

The stranger took Yoh's hand and replied,

"I'm Haru Ogama and this is my guardian spirit Zhou" gesturing to Zhou who had appeared above his masters and was looking at Amidamaru thoughtfully as though he recognised him, however before he could say anything Anna's cold voice carried out to them,

"Yoh get your ass in here your letting in a draft"

* * *

Unbeknownst to Yoh or Haru someone else was watching the fight besides Silva, in the darkness not much could be seen of the figure who had watched the battle between Haru and Ren. The figure appeared to be same height as Yoh but his features could not be seen due to the lack of light. 

Suddenly a smaller figure approached the first from behind and as it did so passed through a pool of light form one of the street lamps. He appeared to be African child.

"Why is Master watching weak shaman fight?"

"Because they interest me Opacho, especially this newcomer, he is unexpectedly strong. He may be able to teach my brother a thing or two about power. Unfortunately I cannot allow that to happen just yet, so it seems I must remove him from the group."

"What does master have planned?"

"At the moment nothing, his arrival is a complete surprise so I have not been able to prepare anything, however I have a feeling he may be useful to me. So for the moment I shall watch"

* * *

Author: well what do you think? Sorry it's moving a bit slow i only just got some info on Hao's followers, thanks for the infoMikauzoran i'll be able to move things on a little faster now. 

Anyway please Read and **REVIEW** come on please tell me what you think i haven't gotten any opions yet even anonymous reviews are welcome


	6. 5: Explanations

Chapter 5: Explanations

Haru couldn't believe the way things had turned out. He had been certain he would have to fight each of the shaman and that he would be forced to find a new shelter. However things had not gone as he had expected, and he didn't mind at all.

When Haru had re-entered the house he saw all the kids sitting in a circle around a girl with blond hair, she was wearing a black dress and had red beads hanging around her neck. She looked up at him when he entered and told him to sit in front of her and Haru complied.

"Now I want you tell us what happened, don't leave anything out and don't bother lying because I'll know if you do" she told Haru glaring at him

Haru didn't look away but continued to stare straight back at Anna before replying

"Who are you? And what gives you the right to order me around?"

Haru then noticed that the room was completely silent; before the other Shaman had been talking quietly to each other, not loudly but loud enough to be heard. Now there was complete silence. Haru looked around and noticed that they were all cowering behind a couch.

"I'm Anna the Ikato and this is my house so I can do whatever I like!"

Haru saw something move to his left, he instinctively raised his hand and blocked the girl's attempt to slap him in the face. He looked at her and whispered

"Nice try, but my sister likes to play the little dictator as well and she's twice your age so anything you do I've seen before"

There was gasp and Haru turned to see the gang all looking at him with their mouths open.

"No way! He just stopped Anna's infamous left hand slap" said Manta in utter disbelief

"Wow I didn't think that was possible" Yoh said in awe.

"Ahem" It was Anna, she glared at the gang before saying,

"Lets get on with this shall we? I would like to know what happened sometime tonight"

The gang murmured their agreement and sat in a circle around Anna and Haru.

Anna sat with her legs crossed and stared into Haru's eyes and said "Well? Start talking"

Haru bit back an insult he had been about to use and took a deep breath and started talking

"As you probably know by now my name's Haru Ogama and this is my guardian spirit Zhou. We were walking in the rain when we saw this building…"

Haru told them about how he had come to seek shelter and had fallen asleep. Then how Lee Pailong had attacked him before he had explained why he was there and then about how Jun had run into kitchen to grab a knife and had tried to stab him.

"Speaking of Jun" said Pilika in a confused tone "Is it just me or has she been acting odd?"

"What do you mean odd?" said Ren darkly

"Well it's just that she's normally always fussing over you, and now after your fight with Haru she hasn't said a thing"

"That would be my fault" Haru said as he raised his hand

"Why what did you do to her you…" Ren started angrily

"Calm down I just hypnotized her so that she'd stop trying to kill me, but if you want her back to normal then fine" Haru finished the sentence by snapping his fingers and Jun fell down asleep.

"Jun…" Ren started to say but was cut off as Haru snapped his fingers again. Jun yawned and got up slowly and looked around,

"Why was I sleeping on the floor…" Jun started but when she saw Ren her eyes widened as she took in the bruises and cuts that covered his body,

"Ren are you all right? What happened? You look awful…" Jun continued to fuss over Ren who started to turn red with embarrassment when Haru snapped his fingers again and she fell down asleep.

"I can keep like that if you want, it'll be a lot quieter" Haru told Ren

"Yeah, thanks" said Ren still slightly red from his sisters concern "Pailong could you take Jun to her room"

"Of course master Ren" Pailong picked up Jun's sleeping form and carried her off to her room. Ren then turned to look at Haru

"How long before she wakes up?" he asked

"Oh she'll wake up some time in the morning" Haru answered

"Um excuse me…" Haru turned and saw that he was being addressed by what appeared to be a talking doll.

"Who are you?" Haru asked the little kid

"Oh my names Manta, anyway can I ask you a question?"

"You just did" Haru saw that the kid looked slightly uneasy at his answer as though unsure whether he could ask another question.

"What's your question?"

"Um well at the end of your fight with Ren I was sure that you killed him because I saw your sword go through his neck…"

"No it didn't"

"Yeah it did I saw it" Manta argued

"All right then" Haru pulled out the hilt of the sword from its sheath and showed it to Manta who backed away, afraid he was being attacked.

"Relax I'm not going to attack you, I just want you to explain how a sword with no blade could cut through someone's neck"

"But it had a blade, you made one for it and I saw it go through Rens neck" Manta persisted

"Are you suggesting that I made a blade out thin air?" talking to Manta as if he crazy

"Well yes, I saw you make it when you started fighting" Manta replied

Haru grinned slightly but his eyes were still emotionless and said "well your sharp I'll give you that. But I didn't create a blade; it was already there, I simply gave it enough power to become real in the physical world"

"What do you mean?" asked Manta confused

Haru sighed and held out the hilt showing it to Manta and saying "it would take to long to explain properly so I'll give you a simplified version."

"It is called the Dragon Blade and was made for my family by a Shaman weapon smith, because it was made by a shaman it has certain properties that normal weapons do not. One thing you will have already guessed is that it allows me to create a blade for the hilt by giving it some of my Furyoku. However this weapon posse's more than one type of blade, as you saw when I was fighting your friend; each blade that I summon posses' different qualities: The Aura blade for example cannot pierce human skin, nor can it kill; it has no edge but it can still cause a great deal damage. The Spirit Blade which I used to defeat your friend also cannot pierce human skin."

"But I saw you…" Manta began

"Let me finish. Although the Spirit Blade cannot harm the flesh it can damage the spirit, which is what it did to Ren. The blade passed through his flesh and attacked his spirit. This caused Ren to loosed consciousness, because his spirit needed some time to recover from the attack. There are other blades that I can summon but I won't bore you with the details right now."

"That was the short version?" Manta asked Haru his mind still buzzing from he had been told.

"The full version takes two days to explain" Haru said calmly.

"Hey dude I got another question for you " Horo said in his usual hyped up voice "When you were like running right at us after Rens thing got stuck in the tree you just disappeared. How'd you do that?"

"Yes I think we'd all like to hear the answer to that" said Ren with just a touch of bitterness

"First of all I didn't disappear I just changed" replied Haru in a dull voice as though he was bored.

"What do you mean changed?" said Yoh puzzled

"Yeah do you mean like…" Choco started one of his jokes but was quickly cut off as both Ren and Horo punched him in the head which knocked him out and left his eyes spiralling anime style

"Dude just shut up" Horo muttered

"No one wants to hear your pathetic attempt at a joke" said Ren glaring at Choco

"What do you mean changed?" said Yoh repeating his question

"I went from flesh and blood to air" replied Haru

"How?" said Ren sharply

"Through Zhou; he came from a long line of wind elementals and therefore has considerable power in the wind element of nature. By channelling enough of Furyoku through him I can change into air"

"Wow that must be really cool" said Manta excitedly, you could go practically anywhere just by changing into wind"

"Unfortunately it's not that easy, I can only do it for short periods of time and doing it repeatedly drains me"

"Hey could you teach me how to turn into air?" Yoh asked with a goofy grin on his face

"No" replied Haru, Yoh face fell, "but I could tech you how to put an aura on your sword to make its attacks more powerful. This caused Yoh's grin to come rushing back

"Awesome when can we start?" Yoh asked with enthusiasm

Before Haru could reply Anna cut in saying

"Haru, you said that when you came here the door was unlocked, didn't you?"

Haru heard someone gulp and then try to move away very quietly. He continued to look at Anna, shrugged his shoulders and said "Yeah so?"

"Yoh…" said Anna slowly, looking to where Yoh had been when he was talking to Haru, but he had mysteriously disappeared. Anna got up and went to look for him and Manta started to ask Haru more questions, which were making his brain hurt, when suddenly…

"Yoh where do you think your going?" Anna steely voice drifted in from the hall

"Uh well…" Yoh started to say in a nervous voice

"You forgot to lock the door didn't you" it was a statement not a question

"I think I'll get started on those laps I owe you" Yoh said running for the door

"Yoh Asakura get back here!"

Haru heard both of them run outside and said to Manta casually

"Delightful girl I can see why Yoh wants to live with her" his voice was heavy with sarcasm

"They're engaged" said Manta quietly

"Arranged marriage?" Haru asked

"No" replied Manta, "Anna saved Yoh's life once and asked him to marry her when he became Shaman King"

"Poor kid if the tournament doesn't kill him his fiancée will"

* * *

Author: Finally some proper reviews,I would like to thank those who reviewed my story and hope that they recommmend it to others

Mikauzoran: I appreciate the fact that i could have revealed my characters name sooner but i was having trouble thinking of one. Secondly Haoprobably won't have a major untilaround chapter 8 or 9but if i get enough reviews asking for me tointroduce him sooner i may change my mind.

Anon: thanks for the support i wasn't really sure whether i had done Jun correctly becusae she doesn't normally say a lot but the other characters seem to have a definite apttern in their speech.

AnywayI will be updating quite soon this week becuase i have been getting so many ideas, i just need to find a way tofit them into the story. There will be a few more OC's and i will do a bit about Haru's history. If there is anything you wantto ask send me an email or a review.

Also please remember to REVIEW


	7. 6: Found You or Pain From The Past

Chapter 6: Found You/ Pain From The Past

"Those are my pancakes"

"I don't see your name on them"

"It's right here"

SMACK

"Ow!"

Ren and Horo's argument drifted outside to where Haru had been meditating since he woke up.

"Master perhaps it's time for you to get something to eat, I don't believe there will be any peace now that the others are awake" Zhou told his master quietly

Haru sighed and got up "unfortunately I think your right, I wonder if there's anything left?"

Haru opened the door and was greeted with one of the most bizarre sights he had ever seen.

Rio was in the kitchen wearing a frilly pink apron and was flipping pancakes. Horo and Ren were fighting each other and trying to stuff pancakes down the others throat. Jun and Pirika were arguing about something and were both having to yell in order to get heard. Anna was trying to make Yoh do his training inside oblivious of what was going on around them and Manta was running around the room with one of his oversized books on top of his head as a helmet. The spirits were trying to calm things down but just seemed to be making things worse.

Haru watched this for a few minutes before he saw Tamao sitting at the end of the table eating quietly. As she was the only who appeared to be sane he made his way over to her and sat down beside her.

"Is it always like this?" Haru asked still watching what was happening in front of him

"No today's pretty quiet" Tamao told him

"Haru looked at her, certain she was making a joke, when he realized she was being serious he said to her in amazement

"They do this everyday and they're still alive?"

"Yep, they're good friends really so they won't kill each other, otherwise it would have happened by now" Tamao told him simply

Haru sighed and then picked up his fork and speared five Pancakes that that were flying through the air towards Rens head, Haru put the pancakes on his plate and began to eat, rising his fork a few times to spear more pancakes out of the air.

When he was finished he left the kitchen and went to explore the house to see if there was anything he could do until things quietened down. He entered the main living room and noticed that there was laptop lying on the floor. _It must belong to Manta_ Haru thought. _I'm sure he won't mind if I take a look_. Haru sat down, picked up the laptop and turned it on. Most of what was on there was a completely boring; school reports and revision notes for pop quizzes, but Haru saw a file marked "Shaman" and decided to open it.

It seemed as though Manta had compiled a database on everything there was to know on shaman, he spent a few minutes looking through it before Ren and Horo dragged their argument into the room. Haru tried to ignore them but they were making too much noise, eventually Haru gave up, switched off the laptop and put it back on the floor where he found it and tried to find some part of the house that wasn't occupied.

While Haru was walking around he turned a corner and someone ran into him and fell down. Haru looked down and saw it Pilika.

"You should watch where you're going" she told him

"You're the one that ran into me" Haru replied in a bored voice

"No I didn't"

"Then why are you the one on the floor?"

"Because…" Pilika thought for a moment and decided to change tack "Why where you wandering around here anyway?"

"I was looking for some peace and quiet"

Pilika laughed at him then saw he was serious, "Well you won't find any around here until Anna throws all the boys out to make them train, you'd be better off exploring the town for a little while"

"Thanks but I think I should do some training myself. Do you know anywhere that's usually deserted?"

"There's an old junk pile that normally empty this time day, it's on the edge of town so no one will mind if you make too much noise"

"Thank you, could you tell Yoh that I haven't forgotten about his lesson and that I'll see him around lunch"

"Sure" Pilika said shrugging and she walked off to find someone else to talk to.

Haru collected his coat and weapon headed outside. It wasn't particularly cold but there clouds in the sky that were threatening to rain.

It took Haru twenty minutes to reach the scrap heap that Pilika had told him about. Although scrap heap hardly described it, it looked as though there had been a massive battle fought out by cars and other metal appliances and no one had bothered to clean up afterwards, burnt out wrecks could be seen everywhere and there were huge towers of stacked cars that looked as if they really shouldn't be able to stand.

_Perfect _thought Haru, "All right Zhou lets get to work" Haru Pulled out his weapon and waited for Zhou to enter it and summoned his green Aura Blade, he ran his hand along the blade once and it turned black. Smiling to himself Haru turned to face one of the perilous leaning towers of wreckage and jumped at it swinging his sword so fast that you could only see a dark haze. Landing a few feet away from the tower in a crouching position he slowly stood and turned his head. As he did so the tower of wreckage that he had attacked crumpled into pieces and collapsed with a loud crash. Haru's smile grew wider as he continued to train; slowly increasing the speed and power of his attacks until half of the junk heap had changed into metal confetti. Haru decided to take a quick break and leaned against one of the remaining towers taking deep breaths to get his energy back, he was about to start training again when…

"Hah, I found you!"

Haru looked up to see a girl about his age standing on a heap of burnt out cars.

"Zhou do we know her?" he whispered quietly to his spirit

"I believe she was you last opponent in the preliminary matches master"

Haru groaned inwardly. He remembered that fight all to well; it has been one of the most annoying in his life.

Flashback

_Haru had decided to get to the battle area early so that he could prepare ahead of time and concentrate on how to win the battle. It didn't really matter because he had won his other two easily, but Haru never fought unless he gave it his all._

_When he had arrived at the designated area, (a park with a fountain and a few trees) he sat down and pulled out his weapon, concentrating his Furyoku into it. He summoned his Aura Blade and focused on it, the blade slowly began to change shape; becoming longer then wider before he allowed it to return to its original shape._

_As he was doing this he saw another figure enter the park; it was a girl who appeared to be the same age him although she looked to be a head shorter, she had brown hair, which was fixed into a ponytail that reached down to her shoulders and was wearing tight kaki shorts and a green top, she also had a black bag slung over her shoulder. She saw Haru and made her way over._

"_Hi there"_

_Haru ignored her and continued to focus on the blade of his weapon_

"_Watcha doing?" she asked him walking closer. She saw the blade changing shape and size, "Cool" she muttered "is it real?"_

_As she said this she reached out to touch the glowing green blade, which promptly vanished from sight._

"_Hey what'd you do that for?" she asked disappointed_

"_To stop you hurting yourself, didn't your parents ever teach you not to touch things that don't belong to you?" Haru said, annoyed that his concentration had been broken._

"_No not really" she answered in a carefree tone of voice, she sat down next to him and began talking to him for no reason at all, asking him what his names was and why he was here._

"_My names Haru and I'm waiting for someone, it's suppose to be a private meeting" Haru said trying to hint to her that she should leave._

"_Who are you waiting for?" she asked still sitting down_

_Haru frowned; the girl was starting to annoy him, but he dug out his oracle bell and read off the name._

"_Mia Seng, now could you please leave"_

"_Um no I don't think I can" the girl replied_

"_Why not?" Haru's voice now had an icy edge to it_

"_Because your waiting for me" the girl answered simply_

"_What" Haru said with deadly calm_

"_I'm your opponent silly" Mia giggled as she said this, pulling out a memorial tablet and released her guardian spirit. It was women who appeared to be in her twenties and was wearing a striped leotard and had a carnival mask covering her face. _

"_Perfect a hyped up cheerleader" Haru muttered under his breath_

_The girl frowned and said "How did you know I was cheerleader?"_

"_Call it a hunch", Haru looked at his watch and sighed, there were still an hour until their match was due to start._

_That hour had been the most agonizing in Haru's life. The girl had talked continuously, telling him about her life and family and how she had entered the tournament. When she asked him why he had entered the tournament he didn't bother replying, hoping that would take the hint and shut up. She stared at Haru for a few seconds, and then answered the question herself, talking in an irritating sing-song voice._

_By the end of the hour Haru had heard all about her life; her parents, brothers, sisters and even the pet poodle she had._

_Haru was nearly ready to strangle the girl to stop her from talking when his oracle bell had started beeping, signalling the beginning of the match._

"_Ooh it's time to start" Mia told him. As she said this she opened her black bag and pulled out two rings that were only slightly larger than Haru's head._

_She integrated with her spirit and began juggling the rings and then rolling them around her arms and legs before throwing them up and catching them in both hands and getting into what Haru assumed to be a fighting stance._

_Haru sighed and stood up pulling out his memorial tablet and releasing Zhou, who came out slowly and formed himself in front of Haru with his back to Mia._

"_Why did you not release me sooner master? Did I do something to offend you?"_

"_Not at all Zhou" Haru muttered darkly "I just thought I'd let you keep your sanity"_

_Zhou looked at his master quizzically for a moment but decided not to comment. He turned round and saw Mia for the first time._

"_Is she our opponent?"_

"_Yes and I must say I'm looking forward to it" Haru replied giving Zhou a dark grin_

_The shaman Council representative appeared and told them to begin._

_Haru instantly leapt forward and struck the girl with a spinning kick that knocked her off her feet she lay on the ground groaning for a few seconds._

"_Hey no fair! I wasn't ready" she told Haru in a whining voice _

_Haru gritted his teeth and bit back the insult he had been about to use and reminded himself that this girl probably wasn't as strong as he was so he should take it easy on her._

_The girl used Haru moment of indecision to attack and shouted,_

_"Razor Boomerang Attack!"_

_She threw both of the rings at Haru. The first one missed completely but the second was heading straight for his head. Haru waited till the last second and sidestepped so that the ring went spinning past him, but he wasn't fast enough and felt something hot on his cheek, he reached up to touch it and noticed that he was bleeding._

_"Master be careful don't let them touch you" Zhou shouted in alarm_

_"Why thank you Zhou I never would have considered that, what ever would I do without you?" Haru told his spirit sarcastically._

_Haru then heard something spinning to his left and threw himself to his right as one of the razor rings sped past him and another ripped through his coat._

_"Hey your good, most people don't realise that they come back" the girl said in her cheery voice._

_Haru uttered a curse and drew his weapon._

_"Aura Blade!" he shouted and charged at her but she jumped back before he could get within range and threw her rings again. Haru kept running and deflected the rings with his sword knocking them to ground and tried attacking the girl again._

_She retreated once more; performing a series of back flips that eventually landed her in a tree where she stopped to catch her breath. She then held out her hands and said,_

_"Return"_

_The rings rose up and went flying into their masters hands, the girl instead of throwing them again, ran towards Haru to attack; swinging her arms around her body creating a deadly wall of razor sharp steel._

_Haru rushed to meet her but didn't use his sword, he waited until he was in range and aimed a diving tackle at her legs, feet first, knocking her over and stopping her attack._

_However the girl didn't land face down as Haru had expected, instead she turned the fall into a roll and came back on her feet ready for a new attack._

_"Your really fast" she told him_

_"You don't know the half of it"_

_Haru ran to attack again but the girl continued to retreat out of range of his attacks._

_Damn it, Haru thought, my attacks are no good if I can't get close enough to use them_.

"_Why don't you change?" Zhou asked his master_

_Haru smiled, the thought hadn't occurred to him. He had only recently mastered the ability and it was still relatively new to him._

"_All right let's try it" Haru dropped his defence and left himself wide open, waiting for Mia to attack._

"_What are you doing?" She spoke in surprise_

"_I'm just proving how pathetic your attacks are, I bet you couldn't even hit me from here"_

_Mia scowled and took the bait, "I'll show you pathetic, Razor Boomerang Attack!"_

_She threw both of her deadly rings straight at Haru who just stood there waiting and at the last second vanished._

"_Huh? Where'd you go?" she cried in confusion losing her concentration, which caused her rings to crash to the ground. She looked round frantically searching for her opponent and didn't notice a slight breeze that blew past her. _

_Mia suddenly realised that someone was standing behind her but before she could turn around was struck in the back of the head. She stumbled forward dizzily but didn't fall down._

"_Shadow Strike!"_

_Mia felt another blow from behind, this time she was hit in the back and was sent flying forwards before crashing into a brick wall where she quickly lost consciousness._

_Haru stepped forward to speak to the council representative who had been watching their battle._

"_Congratulations you have won all three of your battles" The representative said this with just a hint of contempt in his voice_

_Haru stared at him for a moment before asking why he was acting the way he was_

"_You did not need to be so violent with the girl, you could have just left after you struck her. She had lost spirit control and was out of Furyoku"_

"_Really I hadn't noticed, I was too busy worrying about whether she would cut my arm off" was Haru reply, which barely disguised his anger._

_The representative clearly didn't believe him, because he continued to talk in the in the same contemptuous voice._

_Having cleared the preliminary rounds, your next challenge is to find Patch village where the finals are to take place. If you cannot find the village or do not arrive in time for your match you will be disqualified, additional information will be sent to your oracle bell in one weeks time"_

_Haru listened to this and then walked off without another word, he'd heard all needed and had no desire to stick around and talk with someone who clearly didn't like him._

End of Flashback

"What do you want?" he asked Mia in a bored voice

Mia didn't answer immediately, she jumped down from the pile of scrap she had been standing on and walked towards him. Haru then noticed that she was holding her rings in one hand and tensed himself in case she attacked.

Mia walked right up to him and poked him in the chest at the same time saying,

"You big meanie, I want a rematch"

Haru was slightly taken aback he had expected her to just attack him and not bother with the verbal challenge.

"Why? You lost the first match so get over it. A rematch won't change the original result."

"But you cheated!"

"No I didn't" Haru replied determined not to loose his temper

"Yes you did you… Hey where are you going?"

"Sorry but I've got better things to do than look after a spoiled brat like you"

"Who are you calling a brat?" Haru didn't bother to reply and just kept walking

"Hey get back here!" Mai shouted and at the same time threw one of her rings, which missed Haru by inches. Haru stopped and turned to look at her

"What makes you think you'll do any better this time round?"

"You couldn't touch before you disappeared" Mia reminded him

"That was because you kept running away" Haru turned again and started walking again.

"Don't you walk away from me, I want my rematch!" as Mia said this she threw her second ring which flew straight towards Haru's back. Haru kept walking but at the last minute pivoted on his left foot, as he did so his coat went fly out behind him and was sliced clean off by the spinning ring.

Haru saw half his coat lying on the floor and looked towards Mia again and said simply,

"Your going to regret that"

* * *

Author: well that's another chapter done. I seem to be having the opposite of writers block at the moment, but i don't know how long this will last but for the moment i seem to be updating quite quickly. anyways as to my reviewers: 

Nonesofar: I didn't know it was an arranged marriage but I was sure that Anna saved Yoh's life at some point and I thought that was the reason they were engaged. Anyway I like the ending of that chapter so I'm not going to change it.

Mikauzoran: Thanks I'm glad you liked it. It's good to know that people are enjoying my story and I am always glad to receive any reviews. The next chapter won't focus on anyone in particular, it might be a bit slow but I think you'll like it.

To everyone else reading my story please REVIEW you don't have to tell if I did anything wrong or right just tell me if you like it or not. I accept Anonymous REVIEWS.


	8. 7: Who Is That?

Chapter 7: Who Is That?

Haru and Mia had been fighting for nearly twenty minutes and Mia was starting to get tired, Haru on the other hand showed no sign of relenting.

_Damn I didn't think he was this good, _Mia thought to herself as she tried desperately to block Haru's attacks.

"Mia we need to think of something or he's going to win" Kira told her master

"I know, I know but I can't do anything he's too fast"

"Perhaps we could try a more unorthodox approach?" Kira said, telepathically showing her master what she had in mind.

Mia grinned as she saw what her spirit was suggesting

"All right lets do it"

Mia parried Haru's attack and dropped to floor, she landed on her hands and was able to do a back flip that caught Haru on the chin and sent him reeling backwards. Haru rose slowly and gave a cold penetrating stare.

"Not bad kid I didn't expect you to last this long, but I'm done playing games, go home before I hurt you"

Mia fumed silently and thought to herself _who does this guy think he is? And where doe he get off calling me a kid? I bet he's no older than me!_

"We'll see who gets hurt!" she yelled and threw both her rings at Haru. They sailed towards him but he simply raised his sword and deflected them. He started to walk towards Mia but then stopped and turned as though remembering something.

"That's right they come back" Mia told him in her sing song voice as the two rings erupted from one of the remaining towers of scrap metal and hurtled towards Haru, who only just had time to drop to floor as they went flying over his head.

However the two rings had caused the metal tower to loose balance and it started to fall.

Mia watched as the towers collapsed on top of her opponent pinning him under tonnes of metal.

"Yesss! I got him!" Mia started celebrating, jumping around excitedly and performing various acrobatic flips, her hair dancing in the wind.

"That was quite clever" a voice remarked from behind her.

Mia was so excited she didn't bother to turn round to see who she was talking to.

"Yeah I know, he never saw it coming"

"It's a good thing for you he didn't" observed the voice

Mia calmed down a little as she realised that the voice was right. She had nearly been beaten and it was only luck that the tower had collapsed. _When he gets out of there he's going to be real pissed off_ she thought to herself.

"Hey shouldn't he have gotten out there by now? She said to herself "I thought he was stronger than that"

"Maybe you beat him" the voice suggested

"You think so?" Mia replied in excitement

"No"

For the first time Mia wondered who she was talking to and started to turn round.

"Hey who are…"

"Sphere!"

Mia world became black and white and she saw that she was trapped in some type of bubble. Almost as soon as she realised this she began to feel excruciating pain coursing through her; it felt as though someone was stabbing white-hot daggers into every pore of her skin. She yelled but no sound came out and after a few seconds she blacked out.

* * *

Haru watched as she fell to the floor unconscious, steam was still coming off her body from the force of his attack. He relaxed and disengaged spirit control and Zhou formed in front of him. 

"That was not necessary master"

"I know but she annoyed me"

"You could have killed her"

"I doubt it, she is far too stubborn to die that easily, besides I was using the Aura Blade and that can't kill remember?"

Haru walked off towards what remained of his coat and checked whether it was possible to have it repaired. He sighed in disgust and tossed the material over his shoulder where it landed on the ground with an unusually heavy sounding 'Thud' and began to walk away.

"You aren't just going to leave her" Zhou asked in surprise as master started leaving

"Why shouldn't I? She attacked me, there is no reason for me to help her. Besides the nearest hospital is 20 miles away"

"You could take her to Master Yoh's house" suggested Zhou

"Forget it, there's no reason why I should help her at all", with that said Haru turned and started to walk away from the unconscious girl.

"Your father wouldn't have left her" Zhou remarked with a note of disappointment in his voice

Haru stopped walking and grabbed the amulet around his neck as though it burned him. He turned slowly until he was facing his guardian spirit and Zhou saw the cold rage in his master's eyes and realised that he had gone too far.

"I'm sorry master I only meant…"

"Enough Zhou, I think it's time you had some rest" as Haru said this he drew the memorial tablet from his pocket and trapped Zhou inside. Haru looked down at the girl again and his anger faded.

_Flashback _

_We see a young Haru about five years old playing in the park with a man who appears to be in thirties. They are kicking a ball around and one of the child's kicks causes the ball to fly up into a tree and knocks out a bird nest that had been built in its branches._

_The man goes over to look at the nest while the child picks up the ball and starts playing again._

"_Come on dad I want to play some more"_

"_In a minute son I just want to check something" _

_Curious the boy walks over to see what his father is doing and sees that there is a wounded bird in the nest. The boys father is examining the bird and sees that one of the wings are broken. Delicately the man picks the bird up and walks over to a bench and sits down, he holds the bird in both hands and asoft light shines from them. The glow slowly fades and the bird is still for a moment but then jumps up and fly's away._

_The young Haru who hadbeen watching all this walks up to his father and asks_

"_Why did you do that dad?"_

_The man looks down at his son and smiles_

"_Because I could, a shaman doesn't need any more reason that, remember Haru a shaman is meant to help all living things"_

_End of Flashback_

"You were a good man father" Haru whispered, he looked at the girl one more time and sighed. Walking over to her, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder and started to walk back.

* * *

Yoh, Horo, Ren and the other shaman were up at the graveyard training for the tournament. Straw dummies had been set up for them to practice their attacks and there were various weights lying on the ground. Although none of them felt like using them because Anna had forced them all to wear weighted wristbands and shoes so that everything they did was 5 times more difficult then it normally was. 

"Oh man why do we have to wear these stupid things" Horo moan indicating to the weighted wrist bands "My arms feel so heavy I can barely lift them, I'd like to see Anna try and do anything with these on"

"Mistress Anna is not competing in the tournament and therefore does not have to practice with these weights" Rio remarked to Haru in a scolding tone of voice. "Indeed you should be honoured that she is helping you to the train for the tournament"

"Would you two stop your whining, I'm trying to concentrate" Ren told them as he lay on the floor trying to do sit-ups

"Now where was I? Oh yeah 45,46,47"

"21,22,23" Horo muttered in Rens ear

"24,25,26" Ren continued not noticing that he had been tricked

"101,102,103" Horo muttered again trying not to laugh

"104,105… Hey wait a minute"

Horo burst out laughing and rolled on the floor clutching his side

"That's It!" Ren yelled "Bason!" as Ren said this he grabbed his Kwan-do and aimed at Horo's head. Horo ducked at the last second and Ren only managed to cut off a chunk of Horo's hair.

"My Hair! Right you are so dead, Koro into the snowboard!"

As the two of them started fighting Manta just watched them with his mouth open.

"Unbelievable, a minute ago they were too tired to move now look at them" he remarked to Yoh who had just finished his laps.

"Yeah they just needed some incentive I guess" Yoh replied in his usual carefree manner.

"I don't see how you guys can go on living, I mean the way Anna treats you, you should all have died from exhaustion. She just seems to spend her time thinking of new ways to torture you guys"

"Your being too hard on her Manta, Anna really cares about us that's why she'd making us do all this work so we won't get hurt in the tournament. Anyway I'm sure Anna does a lot more with her spare time then think of new ways of training."

* * *

Anna was watching TV in the main room, it was some type of soap opera and she was busy tutting to herself over the story. 

"How can she be so naive he's just going to leave her again like last time, oh well I suppose she'll never learn"

Pilika, Jun and Tamao were playing some type of card game on the other side of the room, Tamao was winning which seemed to be really annoying Jun.

"How can you win four games in a row? Its not possible you've got to be cheating" Jun cried in exasperation at a very nervous Tamao.

"I'm not cheating, you just aren't playing very well" Tamao replied meekly

Pilika shook her head as she heard the two arguing, Jun had been in a bad mood ever since she had woke up this morning but wouldn't tell anyone why. She looked back at two girls and saw Tamao cowering under Jun's acid tongue. Looking for away to change the subject before things got out of hand Pilika said,

"What do think of Haru Jun?"

Jun stiffened at the mention of Haru's name and turned very slowly to face Pilika, who sensed that she'd just asked the wrong question.

"I don't like him" was all Jun would say. Pilika breathed a sigh of relief, certain that Jun had been about to explode. She settled herself more comfortably and looked at Tamao.

"What about you Tamao?"

"He's really cold, it's like he doesn't have any feelings" Tamao replied in her usual timid voice.

"Yeah I noticed that too, he doesn't seem to have a sense of humour he takes everything real seriously. He worse then Ren, at least he gets angry. Haru just doesn't seem to have any emotions. How about you Anna what do you think?" Pilika asked

"Actually I like him", the other girls sweat dropped anime styleat this statement.

"How can you like him? I didn't think you would be able to like anyone who would stand up to you" Jun asked in outrage

"Well he doesn't slack off and unlike you he's quiet. I don't understand why you hate him so much, so he hypnotized you, big deal get over it. He didn't do anything to you so why do you care. Oh abouthim standing up to me,I've got a surprise for Haru, which should be here sometime tomorrow " Anna replied in a cool voice.

"I don't trust him" Jun muttered.

After Jun had said this they heard the front door open and close.

Strange the boys shouldn't be back yet" Pilika said in a confused tone

"Not if they know what's good for them" Anna remarked icily

"I think its Haru" Tamao said quietly

Sure enough they heard Haru's voice drift down the corridor.

"Anna where do you keep your first aid kit?"

"Room on your left, top shelf" Anna replied not taking her eyes off the TV.

"Why does he need a first aid kit?" asked Pilika puzzled

"How should I know?" Jun snapped

Just then Haru walk past and Tamao noticed the he was holding an unconscious girl on his left shoulder and had the first aid kit in his right hand.

"Who is that?" she gasped in surprise

Pilika turned round and to see what Tamao was talking about and her eyes widened in shock. "Hey Haru why have you…" but Haru just kept walking so Pilika got up and went to head him off and was followed by Tamao, Anna and a reluctant Jun.

Pilika ran and got in front of Haru and blocked his path. He looked down at her and asked, "What do you want?"

"Why are you carrying that girl on your shoulder?"

"Because if I carried her in both hands I wouldn't be able to hold the first aid kit"

"That's not what I meant"

"I know, now could you please move"

"Not until you tell me who she is"

"Huh… her names Mia and she was my last opponent in the preliminary matches"

"But the preliminary matches finished a few days ago"

"She challenged me to a rematch"

"You mean you did all that to her?" Jun cried in outrage

"Yes"

"Why did you bring her here?" Anna asked Haru giving him an cold glare.

_I've been asking myself that same question the whole way here _Haru thought to himself but instead he replied, "I was feeling generous"

"Yeah right" muttered Jun

"What ever, could you move now?" Haru directed his question to Pilika who was still blocking his way.

"What are you going to do with her?" Tamao asked meekly

"Well lets see, I've got a first aid kit in my right hand so I think I'll lay her down on a bed and slit her throat" Haru replied without turning round"

"You can't do that!" Tamao said in shock

"Really Tamao, you need to learn that not everyone means what they say" Anna told the pink haired girl disapprovingly "Now as for you" she directed her remark at Haru

"Hand the girl over to us and we'll take care of her,"

"Why would you want to take care of her?"

"I don't but you have better things to do, like teaching my Yoh that new ability"

"Fine" Haru shrugged and gave Mia to Jun who staggered under her weight and then handed Mia's weapons to Pilika.

"Hey be careful I nearly dropped her!" Jun told the black haired boy

"Do I look like I care?"

"You cared enough to carry her all the way here" Pilika told him

Haru ignored this and turned to face Anna "So where is Yoh?"

"He's up training at the graveyard"

Without another word Haru turned and headed out the door leaving behind a very pissed off Jun and an annoyed Anna.

* * *

Author: Wow eight chapters alreday i didn't think i'd get this farwhen i first started. i'm afraid i have some bad news for my readers, i'll be going away on holiday soon and i won't be anywhere near a computer for about amonth. so don't expext anyquick updates once we reach August. to try and make up for this andi'll try and download 2 or 3 chapters before i leave but i don't know how goodthey'll be so when i come back i mayedit them.thats just giving you some advanced warning

Mikauzoran: Glad you liked the chapter, I wasn't too sure of how good the flashback was but i guess it was okay, I haven't decided yet if Mia will play a major role although she probably will.I have been working on two or three chapters at the moment although they're not finished it looks like Hao unfortunatly will notappearuntil chapter 10 and after that he will be far more involved but the focus will not revolve around him.


	9. 8: The Lesson

Chapter 8: The Lesson

_Well this is annoying _Anna thought to herself as she stared at the unconscious girl Jun was holding. _She looks pretty beat up we'd better get started_

"Jun take her to my room and we'll get started" Anna told the green haired Chinese girl

"But that's upstairs" complained Jun

"So you would rather we undress her and bandage her here where all the guys will see her when they come back?" Anna asked with a dark expression on her face

Jun grumbled but didn't argue and carried the unconscious Mia upstairs, followed closely by Pilika, Tamao and Anna.

Just as they had set Mia down on the bed the phone downstairs rang.

"I'll get it" Anna told them, with a bit more enthusiasm than normal. They heard her rush down stairs and pick up the phone.

"Yes it's Anna. We spoke yesterday. Yeah we're at Funbari hill near the graveyard at the edge of town you can't miss us. You'll be here tomorrow morning? Great I'm sure he'll be pleased to see you"

At the last statement the laugh from the person on the other end of the phone was audible to all those upstairs, for some reason it sent shivers down their spines.

"Anna who was that?" Tamao asked the young Ikato as she re-entered the room

"Someone I've invited round tomorrow"

"Who?"

"You'll see, now come on we need to get started"

The four girls worked quietly and efficiently as they tended to the unconscious girl. First removing her damaged clothes, then wiping off the blood and then slowly bandaging her wounds.

"She took quite a beating" Pilika observed

"Yes I noticed that, it seems Haru doesn't like going easy on people, Tamao could you hand me that cloth, oh would you stop cringing it's only blood" Jun snapped at Tamao who handed Jun the bloodied cloth at arms length, as though afraid it was going to explode.

"Yes but if you notice she doesn't have any broken bones and the cuts she has aren't that deep. If you ask me I think Haru was being careful, you saw how fast he was when he fought Ren, I'm guessing he could easily have killed her but he didn't" Anna remarked in her usual expressionless tone.

"I didn't think he was that good, maybe she was just too skilled for him to be able to hurt her that much" Jun replied, annoyed that Haru was being defended.

"No I don't think so, if she was as good as that Haru would have been hurt as well wouldn't he? And he seemed perfectly fine when he walked in" Pilika said

"Hey look what I found" Tamao exclaimed showing the group a black memorial tablet. "I found it in her shorts pocket, should I open it?" she asked the others.

"Not yet, let's finish working first, the last thing we need is a rouge spirit roaming around the house" Anna told Tamao curtly.

* * *

It took Haru ten minutes to reach the graveyard, it wasn't difficult to find because you could hear Ren yelling a mile away.

Haru made his way up the hill towards the cemetery and stopped to get a good vantage point so that he could see what they were doing.

Ren and Horo were fighting again but Haru had come to accept this as normal. Rio was arguing with Tokageru about some new attack he had come up with. Yoh was leaning against a tree and was talking to Manta who had his laptop out and appeared to be reading something and Choco was over by the gravestones trying to get some of the ghosts to laugh at his jokes.

"This is training?" Haru asked bewildered

"Actually master I believe they are taking a break"

"They expect to win the tournament like this? Huh… well I guess I'd better get going, the sooner I start the sooner I'll finish" Haru replied and began walking up to the SK gang.

"I'm sure Anna would be real impressed by your training efforts Yoh" Haru said as he came up behind the relaxed shaman.

"Huh, what the? Ow!" Yoh said as he lost balanced abd fell over.

"Hi Haru we were just taking a little break" explained Yoh as he got back up.

"For half an hour?"

Yoh hung his head as he heard this "You were watching us?"

"Yes"

"You aren't going to tell Anna are you?" Yoh asked in a worried voice

"No, I know what it's like being forced to work day and night. Anyway Anna doesn't seem that tough, you guys should consider yourselves lucky.

"What!" exclaimed both Yoh and Manta at once. "You have seen what she puts us through haven't you"

"Yes but her training has never threatened your life has it?" Haru replied

"Well…"

"I'm not talking about the way she slaps whenever you're late or make a small mistake. I'm talking about the kind of training where you have to fight for your life. My sister would wake me up every morning at five and force me to swim against the current of the river…"

"That doesn't seem so bad" Yoh remarked

"…and if you weren't strong enough you went over the edge of the waterfall, 500 feet down.

"Ouch" That was all Manta could think of

"Then there was the time she thought I wasn't running fast enough so she had her 'little' pet chase me to make me go faster.

"When you say little pet" Yoh began

"It was a lion. So trust me when I say that Anna isn't that bad, she may be cold but believe me there are far worse"

"Hey Haru, how's it going? When did you get here?" Horo had only just noticed Haru presence and his question alerted all the other shaman who came to gather round.

"I've been here for a while and I must say your training style seems truly unique" Haru answered the blue haired shaman.

"What? Oh yeah thanks I like to get a good workout" Horo replied

"You realise he just insulted you" Ren told the hyped up snowboarder

"Huh? How would you know?" Horo asked indignantly

"Because I have a brain that's larger than pea" Ren said calmly

Before Horo could reply Rio butted "Ah Mister Haru you have come to teach us a new ability have you not?"

"Actually I came to teach Yoh" Haru answered "but you can watch if you want"

Turning back to Yoh Haru saw that he had oversouled with Amidamaru and was looking anxious to begin.

"Don't bother with your oversoul you won't need it at this stage"

Yoh complied and released Amidamaru from his weapon and waited for the next instruction.

"Good now the first thing you'll need to do is focus your Furyoku into the sword and…"

As Haru spoke these words a black cloud appeared out of nowhere and filled the sky, it started to rain and lightning could be seen in the distance followed closely by thunder.

"Aww man where did this storm come from?" Horo yelled over the noise of the thunder, while holding his snowboard above his head.

"How should I know?" Ren shouted back

"Lets just try and get back to my place" Yoh told the others as he started running

They all started running after Yoh but Haru stayed behind and looked up at the sky.

"This isn't right" he muttered to himself. He felt someone tugging on his leg and looked down to see Manta who had stayed behind as well.

"Come on we need to get out of here, you don't even have a coat on"

With that said Manta jumped on to bike and began heading back followed closely by Haru.

* * *

In the darkness of the one of the trees a figure could be seen sitting on one of the braches above where Yoh and the gang had been talking. A flash of lightning suddenly illuminated his features and the figure appeared to be identical to Yoh.

A smaller figure jumped down from one of the higher branches and sat down beside the first figure.

"Master Hao left that very close" the smaller figure remarked

"Indeed I did, but I wanted to see where he would start. It seems that I will have to act more quickly to remove him, I was hoping to avoid a confrontation but now it seems that will not be possible" as Hao finished speaking he immediately vanished in a wall of fire.

* * *

Author: well that one more chapter done, sorry if it's moving a bit slowly but I don't like to rush things, anyway I hope you enjoy it. If there's anything you think I could improve on or if you just really like the story why don't you send me a Review, it doesn't matter if it's signed or anonymous but I just like to know if people are enjoying my story.

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: Sorry to hear that you're ill, I hope you get better soon, I really value your opinion and I really enjoy reading your stories. Your info has helped me plan out future chapters for when Haru meets Hao and his followers. Hao will appear in chapter 10 although I had to make chapter 9 quite along to accommodate this. Anyway I hope you get better and that your Internet problem gets fixed soon.


	10. 9: A New Visitor

Author: i have noticed recently that i have not been getting many reviews, so i went to look at some stories where people were getting reviews and i found that they all asked for reviews at the begining of the chapter so anyway Please REVIEW, the more REVIEWS i get the quicker i'll update and remember that i'm going away for a month in August.

* * *

Chapter 9: A New Visitor 

Haru made his way quickly to Yoh's house easily keeping up with Manta's bike. As he got to the front door he saw that it was open, slowly he made his way in, remembering what had happened the last time he had come in here when the front door had been left open.

Haru relaxed when he saw that everyone was sitting around a table in the main room talking to each other quietly.

"Hey Haru what you took you so long? Grab a seat" Yoh told him in his usual cheery voice. "We were just talking about what we think the next round of the tournament would be like"

"It won't be as easy as the preliminary's" Haru replied

"Dude you are so negative, can't you just relax and have fun for once? Even Ren can do that"

"I'd watch what you say" Ren told the blue haired Ainu coldly

"Yeah like your gonna do anything about it" Horo muttered

"What was that?" Ren asked with deadly calm. Almost immediately the two began fighting and this brought the girls down from upstairs to yell at them until they stopped.

"Hey Anna what are you doing upstairs?" Yoh asked the ice queen nonchalantly

"We're cleaning up some one else's mess" Jun answered before Anna could respond and gave Haru a cold glare. Haru just shrugged and started talking Manta; asking him whether he knew anything about Patch village.

It was roughly 11pm before they all went to sleep and although Haru wouldn't admit it he'd had a good time. The gang hadn't forced him to make conversation like other people did; they'd let him be but had listened whenever he said anything. The only downside to the evening had been when he had been about to go to bed and had run into Jun in the corridor.

She'd tried to slap him but he caught her wrist and held it until she looked him in the eye.

"What did you do to her?" Jun asked anger in her voice

"What are you talking about?"

"That girl …Mia, the one you brought here. We cleaned her wounds and bandaged her up but she won't wake up. Anna tried to get in her mind but said that she was in too much pain for her to do anything"

Haru frowned for a moment. He'd been sure he hadn't used that much power on the girl but if she was in that much pain then maybe he had over done it. _Don't worry about it,_ he thought to himself,_ there's nothing you can do now. You didn't use enough to kill her, it will probably just be a few more days before the force of the attack wears off, I hope._

"Don't worry about her she'll be fine in a few days" Haru told the green haired Chinese girl

Jun stared at Haru for a few moments and when she spoke there was a hint of astonishment in her voice, "You don't care do you? You really don't care. You carried her all the way here but if she died you'd just shrug your shoulders and act as if nothing happened. How can you be so heartless?"

Haru took a deep breath and kept his face blank as he replied "I am what I am" he then walked off to his room trying to suppress the emotions the words had caused in him. Leaving Jun staring at his back, speechless.

* * *

Haru woke up early again the next day and sat down in the back garden trying to meditate like Zhou had shown him, but he couldn't calm down. He kept remembering Jun's words and they made him uncomfortable. _She doesn't know anything about me, she has no right to judge me, _even as he thought this it didn't make him feel any better. 

Finally deciding that he wasn't going to get any mediation done he decided to get some breakfast and then try and work off some of his anger at the scrap heap.

As he finished his breakfast he went to grab his Dragon Blade and as he headed for the door someone called out.

"Where are you going?"

Haru turned round and saw Anna at the top of the stairs. She still looked quite tired and she hadn't dressed properly yet.

"You should get some more sleep" Haru told the blond Ikato he headed back to the door…

"I asked you where you were going" there was steel now in Anna voice as she got into dictator mode.

"I'm going to train" Haru replied in a dull monotone. Without another word he turned and left before Anna could respond.

* * *

It was 11am and Anna had just thrown out Yoh and the other to get some training done before they went to search for Patch village in a few days. 

Anna looked at the clock on the wall again and started tapping her foot on the floor. _She should be here by now, she said tomorrow morning so where is she?_

"Anna what are you so worked up about?" Pilika asked

"Her guest hasn't shown up yet, isn't that right" Jun answered. Anna nodded briefly and then started pacing the room.

"Just who did you invite anyway?" Tamao asked from her corner of the room where she had been reading

"Haru's sister"

The other three girls stared at Anna for a moment before asking "Why?" in unison

Anna stopped pacing and gave a cold smile. "Well when Haru stood up to me he said that he would always be one step ahead of me because his sister was worse than I am."

The other girl's mouths all fell open at this statement and Anna gave a dry smile

"I now I didn't believe it either but I decided to go and look up his sister, I found out quite a lot of interesting stuff by the way. Apparently the Ogama's are nearly as rich as the Toa's. They own shares in some major business corporation and Haru's sister manages all of it by herself. I managed to find a phone number and gave her a call, apparently they haven't seen each other for years because both of them travel so much. When I told her that Haru was here she basically booked a first-class ticket on the first plane to Japan she said she'd be here this morning but she hasn't shown up yet"

As soon as Anna had said this there was a knock at the front door. Anna walked over to door very slowly and opened it.

Outside there was a woman who appeared to be in twenty's. She was surprisingly tall and wore a very serious looking dark green suit with black heels and her silver hair was hung loosely down to her shoulders and was carrying a grey briefcase with a black handle. She was also wearing black sunglasses but when she saw Anna she took them off, revealing a pair of ice blue eyes.

"Hello I'm looking for someone called Anna" the woman told the young Ikato

"That would be me" Anna replied

The woman looked surprised for a moment but then held out her hand "Well it's good to meet you. I'm Zahra, Haru's sister. May I come in?"

Anna led Zahra inside and introduced her to the other girls. Zahra was polite and complemented each of them,

"Pilika, hello pleased to meet you. You're an Ainu aren't you? I visited an Ainu family in the mountains once, the scenery is breathtaking"

"Tamao, that's a cute name, I like your pink hair. You're a psychic? Wow I've always wanted to be able to see the future, your really lucky."

"Jun Tao? Really I know your family, I used to work for your grandparents how are they? They were always kind to me"

Jun was taken aback slightly by Zahra's behaviour; she had expected her to be more like her brother but she seemed to be nearly the opposite.

"Are you sure your related to Haru?" Jun asked the silver haired woman

"Yes I am" replied Zahra with a laugh "has he been giving you the silent treatment? Well don't worry that's normal for him. He doesn't really socialize with people that much, so he just acts cold, but he's got a good heart although he'd never admit to it"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that" Jun replied

Zahra frowned "What do you mean?"

"Come with me" Jun led Zahra upstairs to Anna's bedroom where Mia was still sleeping. "Your brother brought her here yesterday after he finished beating her up and left her for us to clean up. We've cleaned her wounds but she's in some type of coma and we can't wake her up"

Zahra frowned again and turned towards Jun, suddenly she seemed a lot more like Haru. "You don't like my brother" it was a statement not a question and the words were covered in ice.

"What is there to like?" Jun retorted

"Be careful" whispered Zahra "I may be more emotional than my brother but I am also far more cruel then he is and I won't stand for anyone to speak ill of him"

"Please don't fight" cried Tamao running between the two of them. As she did so Zahra's good humour seemed to come rushing back.

"Dear child whatever made you think that?" Zahra told the pink haired girl pleasantly "I wouldn't dream of fighting with one of my host's guests. Now as to the problem of this young girl here…" Zahra let the worlds tail off and she walked over to Mia and put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes.

"Dear me" she muttered "You have gotten strong haven't you brother"

Zahra removed her hand and turned to the rest of the girls who had made their way upstairs "She's perfectly fine, if we left her to her own devices she would wake up in about four days. However I can speed up that process dramatically.

As Zahra said this she drew a small silver piccolo (a musical instrument) from an inside pocket of her suit, she put it to her mouth and her fingers started moving along it's length although no sound seemed to be coming from it. However Anna noticed that the sun outside appeared to get brighter and the wind picked up considerably.

Zahra continued to play the silent instrument for 5 minutes or so and then put it away and snapped her fingers. Almost immediately Mia began to move.

* * *

There was darkness everywhere, she couldn't see, she couldn't breathe. She tried to move but was stopped by a wall of fire that was more painful than anything she could imagine. 

"Help me" she whispered. There was no reply. She began to sink into despair, _no one will ever find me I'm trapped, there's nothing I can do_

She felt a breeze across her cheek and looked up startled. The breeze was accompanied by the sounds of birds singing and the sound of a stream gurgling.

All at once the darkness vanished, she could see, she could breathe. She tried to move but the wall of fire remained; but it was not as painful as before. Beyond the fire she could see a light, a way out.

_There's no way I'm staying here_ she thought to herself. She tensed herself and ran through the fire and into the light.

"Owww" Mia groaned. Her body hurt like hell; all of her joints seemed to be on fire and her head felt as though someone had letting off dynamite inside.

She realised she was lying down and struggled to get into a sitting position. Her body argued with her judgement and Mia didn't have the strength to argue back and ended up lying down again.

_Maybe I should just try and open my eyes_, she did so and the light nearly blinded her but after a few seconds her eyes adjusted and she saw five people watching her, four of them with their open. The fifth women however just seemed to have a knowing smile on her face.

"How do you feel" she asked kindly

Mia thought a moment before replying "like a punching bag"

"That's not surprising, my brother did quite a number on you"

"Your brother?"

"Yes my brother, Haru

"Who's Haru?

Zahra frowned for a moment and said, "What is the last thing you remember?"

Mia thought for a moment but couldn't seem to recall anything past waking up in the bed. She told Zahra this and the woman's frown increased.

"Oh dear, you seem to have a partial case of amnesia, that means yourguard wasdown when my brother hit you. Don't worry I should be able to deal with that as well, now close your eyes"

Mia did so and Zahra placed her hand back on the girl's forehead. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically, so much so that whenever anyone breathed a mist formed in front of their mouths. This lasted a few seconds and then warmth slowly made it's way back into the room. Zahra removed her hand and backed off a little, giving Mia some room to breathe.

"My head…" began Mia but she cut short by Zahra

"Yes your head will hurt for a while but I think you'll find that you can remember a lot more now"

Mia shook her head slowly and got up, her legs almost buckled beneath her so she decided to sit down again. "I remember fighting in the junkyard but I was sure I beat Haru"

"Why were you so sure?" countered Zahra

"Well for starters I buried him under a tonne of metal"

"How did you do that" asked Anna who had been unusually silent

Mia started describing the battle she'd had with Haru; how he had starting beating her and then how she had knocked over the tower of burnt-out cars on top of him.

"Did you actually see it fall on top of him?" Zahra questioned

"Yeah…Well sort of I didn't see it hit him because of all the dust it made when it hit the ground but there's no way he could have gotten out of the way in time" Mia replied and was annoyed to see the older woman smile "I'm not making this up!" she almost shouted at the group.

"I never said that you were, but I wonder if you could answer something for me, after you knocked down the tower did you notice a breeze or a sudden gust of wind?"

Mia thought for a moment, she had been so busy celebrating over her supposed victory that she couldn't be certain. _Wait a minute my hair kept blowing into my face when I was jumping around._ "Um yeah there a breeze why do you ask?"

"Because my brother has the ability to transform himself into air, I think the correct term is 'morph' but I'm not sure.

"That's not fair" Mia pouted as she said this and Zahra raised her eyebrows

"Really? Why not?"

"Because I can't do that"

Zahra laughed at this statement and replied, "You really are childish aren't you? Think about it, if everyone were the same then there would be no reason for the shaman tournament. You may not have my brother's ability to 'morph' but I'm sure there are things you can do that Haru wouldn't be able to manage"

Mai thought about this for a while and seemed to calm down, "Yeah I guess your right"

"I know I'm right, now there's one more thing I want to ask you. Why did my brother agree to fight you in the first place? I would have expected to him to have just walked off"

"He was about to walk off but…" Mia's voice faded away

"What did you do?" asked Jun curiously

"Well I attacked him"

"While his back was turned?" Pilika questioned

Mia hung her head and mumbled "Yeah"

"And you hit him?" Zahra's voice was full of surprise, "Well, well, well, either my brother is getting lazy or you're stronger than you look"

"Why do you sound so surprised? Most people will get hit if they're attacked from behind" Anna remarked in her cool voice

"Well it's just that, my brother may be a bit oblivious of what goes on around him; that's why he seems so cold. Zhou on the other hand is sharper than any sword; there's no way he wouldn't have seen the attack coming"

"Well I didn't really hit him" Mia confessed "He dodged my attack but I kind of cut his coat in two and that seemed to really piss him off"

"Was it a long dark grey coat?" questioned Zahra

"Um yeah"

"I designed that for him" Zahra's voice was just above a whisper "I didn't think he liked it. He always complained that it was too heavy"

"How can a coat be too heavy?" Mia asked in confusion

"Well I had lead weights put into the lining"

"How much weight did you put in the coat" Anna question the silver haired woman sharply

"Oh about 80kg nothing drastic" Zahra replied

The other girls stared at Zahra open mouthed for a few seconds while Anna furiously thought, _80 pounds no way! Yoh doesn't even weigh 80 pounds and Haru was able to beat Ren easily with it on. How fast would he be without it? Damn! I'll have to increase Yoh's training while they're looking for Patch village._

The group questioned Zahra for a while asking her what training techniques she had used on Haru and how they worked.

"You threw him over a water fall!"

"You made him try and out run a Lion!"

This went for a bout half an hour before Mia suddenly realised there was something she didn't know, "Um 'scuse me but uh how did I get here in the first place?" did you guys find me in the junkyard after the fight or what?"

"Oh didn't we tell you? Haru carried you here" Anna remarked in a bored tone of voice and then turned and continued questioning Zahra.

"Why'd he do that?"

"He said he was feeling 'generous'" Jun scoffed at her own reply; indicating how unlikely she thought that was.

"Generous? Him? The only thing he cares about is himself. He certainly didn't care about how much he hurt me when we were fighting" Mia replied

"Do not be so quick to judge my brother you have no idea what he has suffered" Zahra voice had suddenly taken on an icy tone that rivalled Anna's.

"Oh yeah, well why don't you enlighten us then" Jun told the silver haired woman with a sneer on her face.

"As you wish" as Zahra said this she stood up and drew a circle in the air with her right hand, as she did this she chanted a incantation of some sort. The room grew dark and the circle of air she drew solidified itself and became a window of some kind.

"Imagine you are five years old" Zahra started "you are young and innocent and know nothing of death or disease_." (As Zahra speaks images began to appear in the window and acted along with her narrative)_ "You have a loving family and a good home, your father is much respected because of various shamanic skills such as healing and exorcism" _(a young boy is shown playing a field with his father and mother and then shown sleeping in a good home)_ "The world is a beautiful place for and you have nothing to fear"

"Sounds terrible" mutters Jun from her seat

Zahra continues as though she has not heard Jun, "Then one day people whom you had thought were your friends turn on you, they fear your father for his power and suspect that he will use his power to destroy them. So they lure him away from his home and murder him when he his defenceless. _(In the window a man is shown walking through the woods and finds himself surrounded by riflemen, before he has a chance to react he is shot at least 20 times from all directions)_ "However that is not enough for the killers, they decide that the Shamans family must also perish. They go to his home to murder his wife but they do not even allow her a peaceful death. They tie her down and build a bonfire around her and light it and then ride away as she is screaming in pain _(The mirror shows images following each of Zahra's words and rests on the image of bonfire piled high near a wood and a dark figure can be seen in the heat of the blaze. The image shifts suddenly to focus on the woods near the bonfire and a small child can be seen cowering by a tree)_

"However the killers do not find the shamans son who had walked into the woods moments before they had arrived and was forced to watch the death of his own mother knowing there was nothing he could do to save her" _(The window focuses on the boy's terrified face for a few seconds and then goes blank)_

Light slowly filters back into the room and each of the girls have become deadly pale, Tamao is weeping on Pilika's shoulder and Jun eye's are wide in shock as are Mia's.

"How can people be so cruel?" Mia whispers

"It is a human reaction, what people do not understand they fear. They did not understand my father's power and therefore feared him" Zahra replied her voice still icy.

Jun shakes her head a moment and then turns to Zahra, "I am sorry, I had no idea…"

"I'm not the one you should apologise to, if you wish to make amends then do so with my brother, but do not tell him I showed you his past he would not want you feeling sorry him" Zahra replied in an acid voice.

"One thing I would like to ask" Anna began, "is where were you in all of this?"

"My father had sent me abroad to study and I did not know of his death until two weeks after his murder. I went home immediately hoping the story was false, but when I saw our home I had accept otherwise, that was where I found Haru; he had not moved from the spot where he had seen our mother die. He had almost starved himself to death by the time I had found him and it was a year before he would speak again"

An uneasy silence followed the story, no one was sure what to say.

Finally Tamao asked if anyone would like some tea and was greeted by a chorus of

"Yes"

As Tamao left to make the drinks the rest of group started to make meaningless conversation. Jun however remained silent.

When Tamao returned with the drinks, there was a moment of silence as everyone took a sip

"You know Zahra" said Anna slowly, "Your not quite what I expected. The way Haru talked about you …"

"You thought I would be diabolically ruthless and act as if I owned your house" Zahra cut in finishing Anna's sentence.

Anna shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Well yes actually"

"Well let's just say that in the years I've spent away from my dear brother I have matured slightly. I have found that while being cold and cruel may work a lot of the time it is sometimes far more effective to be kind and let a person's own guilt be their incentive, although in a way that is also quite cruel. Besides you are the one who told me where to find Haru I see no reason as to why I should be anything but kind to you. I expect that you will see a different side of me when I meet Haru" As Zahra finished speaking she placed her cup on the floor and turned so that she could face Anna more comfortably. "Now then" she continued, "while we are on the subject, where is Haru?"

"He left early this morning to go train" Anna told Zahra her voice emotionless

"Did he say when he would be back?"

"No"

"Then I will assume he will back for dinner, he never stops for lunch anyway" once Zahra had said this she pulled a small black mobile phone from the pocket of her suit jacket and dialled a number, "Hello, can I speak to Dominic? Tell him its Zahra." There was a pause as the call was transferred and then Zahra started speaking again. "Hello Dom its Zahra, I was wondering if you still had a shop in Japan? You do? Great. Do you still make those weighted training coats I designed? Good, I would like you to make one for my brother Haru, he will have grown slightly so make it larger than the first one…"

Zahra continued to talk on the mobile for another 10 minutes before she finally finished ordering the new coat.

Everyone started to head downstairs to find some place more comfortable or to find something to do leaving Mia in her bed.

Mia had started to fall asleep from the sheer boredom of the conversations around her, she decided that she should get out of bed and try to get some fresh air. As she pushed the blankets away she realised that she wasn't wearing anything. She pulled the blankets back up hastily hoping no one had noticed.

"Where are my clothes?" she asked Tamao who was nearest to her. The pink haired girl turned and replied meekly "We sort of threw them out"

"What!" cried Mia outraged

"Well they were covered in blood and we didn't think you would want to wear them again"

"But what am I supposed to wear?" Mia asked indignantly

"Oh I'm sure you'll fit into some of Tamao's clothes, you seem to be about the same size" Anna said offhandedly, "you don't mind do you Tamao?" Anna asked the pink haired girl, but there was a tone in her voice that suggested that there would no argument at all.

"No Anna that's fine" Tamao replied timidly and hurried off to get some clothes.

When Tamao came back she was carrying an armful of clothes, which she dropped at the foot of the bed Mia was sleeping in. Mia sifted through the clothes and finally picked out a pair of black shorts and a green shirt with a red heart on the front.

Feeling slightly better now that she was dressed Mia made her way downstairs and looked for someone she could talk to. She had still had no idea where she was exactly and where the rest of her things were.

Walking around she found Jun In the kitchen making another pot of tea.

"Uh hi there" Mia said, Jun turned round and smiled when she saw Mia,

"Good your up, I was wandering how long you were to sleep. Do you want some tea?"

"Um no thanks" Mia replied, she hated the stuff and could never see how other people could drink it, she had a cup earlier because things were kind of awkward but hadn't drunk any of it. "Do you know where my weapons and stuff are?"

"I believe that Pilika had them so you will have to ask her"

"Which one's Pilika" Mia asked confused

"She's the blue haired Ainu, I think you'll find her outside in the garden"

"Oh, thanks" Mia walked off in search of Pilika and sure enough found her in the garden talking to Tamao.

"Um Pilika?" Mia ventured hoping that she had found the right person. Pilika turned and when she saw Mia smiled just like Jun.

"Oh hi, it's Mia isn't it? We were just talking about you" Pilika said in a cheery voice

"Uh yeah, Jun said that you had my weapons and stuff…" Mia trailed off

"What? Oh yeah Haru gave them to me, wait just a minute" Pilika got up and went to her room, leaving Mia with Tamao. They chatted for a few minutes and Mia learned there was a shopping mall in the town that was open 24/7. Just as she was about to ask Tamao about the various shops in the mall Pilika came back carrying Mia's black bag which had her deadly razor rings and her other belongings. As Mia went through the contents of the bag she realised that an important item was missing.

"Hey where's my memorial tablet?"

"What" said Pilika who hadn't been listening

"My memorial tablet, you know the thing a shaman puts his spirit in so that they can rest, it's not in my bag"

"Hay Tamao didn't you find a tablet…" Pilika started

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry" Replied Tamao as she fished in her pocket for the black oblong and handed it to Mia who clutched it to her chest, as she did so she sent a small pulse of Furyoku into the tablet and her guardian spirit, it was a women who appeared to be in her twenties and was wearing a red and blue striped leotard and had a carnival mask covering her face.

"Mia are you all right?" the spirit asked her voice full of concern "after the fight he locked me in there and…"

"Calm down Kira I'm fine although I do have a bit of headache" Mia stopped talking and turned to Pilika and Tamao. "Kira this Pilika and Tamao they helped me out after the fight, Pilika, Tamao this Kira my guardian spirit; she used to an acrobat in a famous circus"

The two girls greeted the spirit politely and made idle conversation for a time, then Mia told them that she was going to into town to buy some new clothes since she didn't seem to have any now.

As Mia got up she walked through the house looking for the front door, _this place is bigger than it looks, _she thought to herself. As she wandered around she started thinking back to her fight with Haru. Now that it was over Haru didn't seem nearly as strong, she had held her own for a while and even managed to get a good attack in.

"What are you thinking about?" Kira asked casually

"The fight" Mia replied absentmindedly

"You're thinking we should have won" Kira told her master. Mia nodded absentmindedly again and Kira continued "Despite the fact that he was better than you", Mia nodded again and walked on a few steps before Kira's words sank in.

"Hey wait a minute…" Mia began angrily

Kira laughed at Mia reaction and replied, "Well it's the truth Mia, even I admit to it but that doesn't mean it has to stay true"

"What do you mean" Mia said slowly

"Think about, at the moment he is stronger than us, but we still have time to become stronger than him. We won our other two preliminary matches so we still qualify for the second round of the tournament, which doesn't start for two more days. We probably won't have to fight him again until the third round of fights at the village, so we have time. We also have time to learn about any weaknesses he has"

"Huh what do you mean?" Mia asked surprised

"I believe you told me that Haru's sister was here somewhere, if anyone would know about Haru's weaknesses it's her" Kira replied with a smug grin on her face

"Isn't that a bit like cheating though" said Mia uncertainly

Kira frowned "I suppose your right, still we could try and learn a little more about him"

"I think I already know enough" Mia replied suppressing a shiver

Kira looked puzzled for a moment and then Mia filled her in on what Zahra had told her.

"That's terrible" Kira said in horror "I can't believe that people would do that"

"Well they did" Mia replied she was slightly pale from remembering what she had seen.

"Mia are you all right" It was Zahra, she had just come out of the main sitting room and had a tea cup in her hand.

"Yeah I'm fine" Mia muttered although she did feel slightly dizzy

"You look pale, when was the last time you ate anything?"

"Um…" Mia thought, it had almost been two days since she last had something to eat, "…two days" she squeaked

"I thought it was something like, come on you need some food" without another word Zahra grasped Mia arm and led back to the kitchen and proceeded to open the refrigerator and pull out various foods. "Now then what do you want eat, there's seem to be some chicken and some type of fish…"

"I think I'll just make myself a sandwich" Mia answered

"Ok but make sure you put a lot in it you need to eat" Zahra told her sternly

"Your worse than my mother" Mia replied with a grin on her face

"And your worse than my brother at least he has the sense not to argue with me" Zahra countered with a similar grin

"Why was he scared of you?" Mia asked interestedly

"He was to start off with" Zahra began "but then he got stronger, I can still leave a mark on him though" She said as her grin widened

"Really, how?" Mia asked, her voice anxious

"Well my brother's main advantage is that he's fast, so if you manage to get a firm hold on him he won't be able to dodge your attacks. Although the problem with my brother is that it's difficult to get a good hold on because he canmorph. Luckily however he cannot morph repeatedly or he will get tired very quickly. Apart from that he seems to be rather strong so I suggest you use what I told you to your advantage the next time you fight him" Zahra finished that sentence with a wink and Mia blushed

"I didn't mean to…" Mia began

"Oh don't worry it's quite all right, finding out your opponents weaknesses is an essential habit for any fighter, at least any fighter that wants to win" Zahra laughed as she said this, "now then I think you wanted to head down to the shopping mall didn't you? I suggest you go while it's still light outside"

Mia nodded and left the kitchen and finally found the front door, she grabbed her bag and her shoes and headed outside.

* * *

Haru was tired; he had been training nearly all day and hadn't eaten since breakfast. He would have stayed longer but the owner of the scrap yard had shown up an had been furious when he saw that all the metal had been reduced to confetti which he wouldn't be able to sell. So Haru had been forced to leave and he decided that he would check up on Yoh and others at the graveyard but decided to stop off at Yoh's house first to get something to eat. 

Haru stepped inside through the open front door, _is it ever locked?_ He thought to himself as walked down the hall towards the kitchen, before he came to the kitchen he saw something that made him freeze; it was grey briefcase with a black handle. "No…" Haru muttered to himself and he slowly started moving back towards the front door…

"Haru! Where do you think you're going?" Zahra's cold voice echoed down the hall. Haru stopped moving, there was no point trying leave now she'd seen him. Instead he turned to face her. "What are you doing here Zahra?" he kept his voice emotionless as he spoke.

"What am I doing here? We haven't seen each other for over two years and that's the first thing you say to me" Zahra cried in mock anger. "Not that it matters but Anna here (Zahra gestured to Anna who had appeared from main room) gave me a call and told me where to find you"

At this statement Haru shot Anna a death glare, but Anna simply smiled.

"Don't glare at her like that Haru, she didn't do anything wrong. In fact it seems to me that you are sorely in need of some more training"

"I don't need your help" Haru stated simply

"Oh no? It looks to me like you've gotten lazy you're not even wearing the training coat I had made for you"

Haru frowned as he said "unfortunately there's not enough left of the coat to wear"

"You didn't even take good care of it!" Zahra cried in exasperation "Haru how do you ever expect to win the Shaman tournament if you don't train? It's a good thing that I came prepared, now put this on" as Zahra finished speaking she held up a long grey coat that looked almost identical to the one Haru had before. Without waiting for Haru to respond she forced him into the coat. Zahra had been expecting Haru to stagger under weight because she had increased from 80kg to 100kg but Haru didn't even falter, instead the faintest trace of a smile appeared on his lips.

"What are you so happy about?" Zahra snapped

"Nothing, it's just that this coat is a bit light"

Zahra stared at him for a second before she started speaking, "don't start acting all clever with me, if that's too light then I'll just have to make you do some extra work until I get a heavier one, now then…" a smile appeared on Zahra's lips and Haru's grin vanished almost instantly.

"I wonder, Haru are you still running 10 miles everyday?"

Haru didn't reply but he narrowed his eyes as he saw Zahra pull out the silver piccolo from her pocket. She began to play a forceful tune that reminded Anna of a thunderstorm. As Zahra played a bright light began to glow in front of her, after a few moments the light began to take shape and changed into a brilliant golden Lion with a pure white mane and bright yellow eyes. Zahra stopped playing and looked back her Haru, her grin becoming wider as she spoke, "Haru you remember Leo don't you? I'm sure you do, he's gotten bored lately because he's had nothing to chase but I think you can fix that can't you? I'll give you to the count of five" as Zahra finished speaking she raised her left hand and began to count down on her fingers.

Haru stayed where he was for a second before saying "You've changed Zahra" without another word Haru turned and ran through the house and out the front the door. Zahra finished counting and the golden Lion charged through the corridor and out of the front door after Haru.

* * *

Author: well that's the longest chapter i've done so far, the reason it was so long was becuase i promised to put Hao in the next chapter, the next chapter should hopefully be up by saturday or maybe sunday but no later than monday. 

To my reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran + Matt: Glad you liked the chapter hope your doing better, likeI said above Hao is in the next chapter so you have that to look forward to. I don't know how involved i should make Hao in this story but if you have any ideas then tell me.


	11. 10: Join Me

Author: well what do you know I managed to update early, hope you like the chapter if you do please REVIEW!

* * *

Chapter 10: Join Me

"What did Haru mean when he said that you've changed?" Anna asked Zahra curiously

"What? Oh well I suppose he meant that I was getting soft; when he was younger I wouldn't even have given him a count of one I would have just sent Leo after him and then see how far he would get.

Just then the front door opened again and Yoh and the other shaman walked in looking bewildered.

"Anna you're not going to believe what we just saw" Yoh began

"Yeah Haru was being chased by this Huge Lion!" Horo cut in waving his arms around frantically as he described what he had just seen.

As Horo was talking Zahra took in each of the shaman analysing the way they walked and how they spoke, trying to get an idea of their personalities. As she was doing this her mobile started beeping and everyone turned to look at her, Zahra blushed slightly and apologised and then pulled out her phone to answer the call.

"Yes its Zahra this better be good…. What do you mean he's quitting? He can't quit he still has to finish the investment, I'll be there as soon as I can." Zahra finished speaking and put the mobile back in her bag and then turned to face the rest of the group.

"I'm sorry I have to go now something's come up" Zahra turned to Anna and continued speaking "Thank you for inviting me, it was good to see Haru again, if he ever gets out of hand just give me a call" As Zahra finished speaking she collected her briefcase and left the house at a quick jog.

"Who exactly was that?" Ren addressed his question to Jun

"Her name is Zahra she's Haru's sister"

At this statement the whole group turned round to watch the tall figure disappear around a corner. Then they started muttering to themselves

"That's the evil older sister?"

"She doesn't seem any worse than Anna"

"She sounded more polite though"

"I wonder why Haru thought so badly of her"

At this statement Pilika cut in, "Well if you remember back about five minutes I think you were telling us you saw a Lion" The group of Shamans nodded at this but still looked confused.

Pilika sighed and realised that she would have to spell things out for them, "How often do you see a Lion in Japan?" she asked them. The shaman though about this for a while before they replied that you never see a Lion in Japan.

"Then where do you think this one came from?" Pilika asked trying to get them to come to the conclusion themselves. Still there was silence and eventually Anna snapped.

"Oh for god's sake Yoh use your brain! You were telling me yesterday that Haru said his sister use to have a Lion chase him and now when both Haru's sister and a Lion show up you have no idea! You had better win the shaman tournament because if you don't you'll be too stupid to do anything else! As of tomorrow Yoh you will wear the weighted shoes and armbands all day and I'm increasing the weight of each armband and shoe to 20kg"

"But Anna that means I'll be carrying 80kg! Yoh cried out in shock at the amount of work he was going to be forced to do.

"Well get used to the idea! Did you know that Haru's coat weighs over 100kg and your going to have to face him sooner or later in the tournament so your going to start working to beat him right now!"

As Anna continued to bark orders to Yoh the others decided that they should try and get away very quietly before Anna noticed them as well

* * *

Haru kept running, he didn't know how far or how long he had been running but all that mattered was that he stayed ahead of that damned pet his sister kept. Haru eventually saw that he was coming up to the main part of town. He decided that it was probably a good thing that it was about midnight because he was sure that regular people weren't use to seeing Lions run down a main street after a teenager. 

Haru took a quick glance behind and noticed that Lion had disappeared. He stopped running and turned around fully making sure that he was right.

"Where the hell did it go? There's no way it would give up on me so easily"

"Master…" Zhou began staring behind Haru his eyes widening

"Not now Zhou I'm looking for my sisters stupid pet"

"Master I really think that you should…"

"Zhou what part of 'not now' did you not understand…" Haru stopped speaking as he felt warm breath on the back of his neck. Haru didn't even turn round, he just sprinted down a side road to his left leaving behind a confused Lion that blinked for a few seconds before realising that it's prey had gotten away, it roared and charged down same side road after Haru

Haru was now running through the back alleys of town and the Lion was hot on his tail, Haru was tired now, he wasn't sure how far he'd run but it was definitely more than 10 miles.

"Hey over here!"

Haru looked up and saw Yoh waving at him from a side alley, without a moment hesitation Haru dived in after Yoh as the Lion went charging past him.

Haru just lay on the ground for a few seconds trying to catch his breath and then got back on his feet. He turned round to thank Yoh, then he realised that the figure in front of him was not the person he had come to know over the past few days. Although he looked identical to Yoh the stranger was wearing a grey poncho and brown trousers, he also had a dark aura surrounding him, which was far stronger than Yoh could ever hope have.

"Your not Yoh" Haru told the figure

The brown haired boy in front of him laughed, "How perceptive of you, no I am not Yoh, my name is Hao, I suppose you could say I'm a relative of Yoh."

"Let me guess you're the clichéd evil twin" Haru asked darkly

Hao smiled as he heard this, "Yes I suppose I am something like that"

"What do you want?" said Haru with an edge to his voice

"What makes you think I want something from you?" countered Hao

"I really doubt that you came here just to talk" Haru replied keeping the edge to voice

Hao smiled again at this statement before responding, "Very well, I do require something from you, I want you to join me and my followers so that I may become shaman king in the tournament"

"And I would want to do this because…." Haru let the words hang in the air

"I can give you more power than you can ever dream of" responded Hao

"I already have power, besides I was planning on winning the shaman tournament my self, I don't see why I should help the competition" this said Haru turned and started to walk back out of the alleyway but before he had gone five paces was stopped by a towering wall of fire.

"I'm afraid I can't take no for an answer" Hao told the black haired shaman casually

Haru turned and stared at the Yoh look-alike in front of him, he was starting to get annoyed. "Drop the fire wall"

"Make me" Hao replied with a smirk. Haru took six paces and then stood right in front Hao and grasped the collar area of Hao's poncho and lifted him off the ground. Hao didn't struggle, he just laughed and the two of them vanished in a burst of flame.

* * *

Mia was having the best time of her life; the shopping mall in the town was better than she could have dreamed possible, it had virtually every clothes shop known to man/woman. Not only that it had her favourite fast food places and it had a cinema, Mia was in heaven. She'd visited five of the shops and had bought as many clothes as she could afford, the problem now was she hardly had any money left and was looking for something to eat but most of the stuff was too expensive. 

Mia stooped walking suddenly as she noticed one of the huge shops was having a special closing down sale the poster on top of it read "80 OFF ALL ITEMS! EVERYTHING MUST GO!" The place was full of teenage girls all around Mia's age pushing and screaming as they tried to get the clothes they wanted. Without any hesitation Mia charged in, she'd had experience in these type of matters; the trick was to be as ruthless as possible, don't let anyone get in your way and don't let yourself get distracted.

Despite Mia's small size she managed to shove her way through to where the clothes were on display and grabbed whatever she could find; she could look at them later first she had to get them. Abruptly she reached for a low cut black short sleeve shirt that had a silver lighting bolt on the front, as she did so another pair of hands grabbed the shirt as well. Instinctively Mia started tugging on the shirt hoping to pull it out of the other girl's hands, but to no success. Mia glanced over to see who the hands belonged to and saw a girl that looked slightly younger she was. The girl had red hair which was done up into two pigtails and had earrings designed to look like skulls.

The two girls stopped struggling for a minute and glared at each other.

"Let go it's mine" Mia told the newcomer

"No it's not" replied the new girl

"Yes it is" Mia answered defiantly

"I don't see your name on it"

The two started struggling again for possession of the shirt and eventually the shirt ripped in half. Both girls stared at the shirt for a moment then at each and laughed.

Both girls managed to grab some clothes and then escape the shop without being trampled by the other customers.

They headed down towards the restaurants and fast food places and Mia started talking to the red head and learned that she was a shaman as well, she had just asked the red haired girl her name but before the girl could respond, two more girls came round the corner and started talking to the red head.

"Where has Macchi been?" asked a slim blond haired girl, she had a bored look in her eyes and was carrying some type of doll.

"Yeah Macchi where were you? I've been looking everywhere for you. Hao found what he wanted so we have to go meet up with him" The girl who said this was taller than the other two and had long blue hair that went down to her waist.

"Aww have we got to leave now Kanna? There are some really cool stores here besides we never get a chance to go shopping" Macchi asked the tall blue haired girl

"Are you arguing with me Macchi" Kanna asked the younger girl, as she said this Mia noticed a spirit that looked like a suit of armour hover above the blue haired girls head and look threateningly down at Macchi.

"You're a shaman" Mia blurted out loudly. Several turned towards Mia to see why she was making so much noise and the girl named Kanna scowled at her as if seeing her for the first time.

"Who are you?" Kanna asked while glaring at Mia

"Her names Mia" cut in Macchi hurriedly "we met in one the shops and I was sort of hoping that she could come with us" Macchi gave Kanna a pleading look

Kanna shook her head at this and replied, "No way Macchi, Hao's the one who picks who gets to join. Anyway I seriously doubt he'd be interested in her, I mean come on she's a weakling" Kanna pulled a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it, ignoring the glare she was getting from Mia

"I'm no weakling!" Mia shouted in outrage, "Come on! I'll take you on right here!"

Kanna shook her head at this and looked at Mia with a faintly amused expression on her face, "You got guts kid I'll give you that, all right you can follow us but Hao still has the final word and he's not the generous type"

* * *

Haru stumbled forward and then straighten up. Where the hell was he? A second ago he'd been in the middle of a town, now he appeared to be in some sort of grassy valley; there were no houses or buildings anywhere that he could see, the place seemed totally untouched by civilisation. 

"This is an interesting trinket"

Haru turned round to see who had spoken and saw Hao a few feet away from him looking at something in his hands; it was a gold amulet on a silver chain, it was the kind of amulet where you split it in half and then give one half to someone you know, but this amulet had both halves reattached.

Haru looked down at his own neck quickly, his amulet was gone!

"Give that back" Haru growled quietly

Hao looked up apparently surprised "Oh have I made you angry?"

"Give it back" Haru repeated and grasped the hilt of his dragon blade.

"Are you going to fight me for it?" Hao said with a laugh, "All right then how about this then; if you beat me I'll give you your little trinket, but if I win you join me" As Hao said he tossed the amulet to a smaller figure Haru hadn't noticed. "Opacho will look after it while we fight and give it to the winner, now then do you agree to my terms?"

"No deal" Haru muttered quietly, "I'm just going to take you and your little friend out then take my amulet back. Hao frowned at this but didn't have a chance to reply because Haru chose that moment to attack with his green Aura Blade.

"Shadow Strike"

Hao sighed as he saw the arc of black light hurtle towards him and diverted it with a wave of his hand.

"I'm afraid you'll have to do better than that, especially if you want to beat me" as Hao finished speaking the ground between Hao and Haru rumbled and split open, a geyser of lava erupted from the fissure and the Spirit Of Fire (SOF) rose slowly from the opening. When it stopped Hao leapt nimbly onto it's shoulder and looked down at Haru, "Come on then what are you waiting for?"

Haru looked up at the giant spirit in front of him and sensed the amount of power it had, _Shit_ he thought, he raised his head to look at Hao and said in what he hoped was an unimpressed voice, "You do know it's quality not size that counts"

"I think you find that I have both" Hao replied, he nodded his head and SOF left arm surged towards Haru, who swerved to his left and brought his blade down on the spirits arm. The blade bounced off without doing any damage.

"Okay this is not good, Zhou any advice would be welcome"

"Try using a different blade, you are fighting a spirit not a human"

Haru smiled and ran his left hand along the blade changing it from green to blue, Haru then gestured for Hao to attack again.

Hao looked quizzically at Haru for a moment, "I don't see why your getting so cocky, you haven't got a chance" The SOF right arm surged forward, Haru stood his ground this time and at the last second pivoted on his right foot so that the spirits arm crashed into the ground right next to him, he brought his weapon down with all his force and the blade cut cleanly through the SOF arm leaving it lying on the ground. Haru looked back Hao with a slight grin on his face, "You were saying…"

Hao looked mildly interested at this twist of invents, "Well done, even the X-laws would have a problem doing that however…" Hao snapped his fingers and the SOF arm reappeared in a burst of flame, "…you still haven't got a chance" Hao told him with a smirk

Haru scowled at this but was unable to reply because the SOF started attacking and he was forced to concentrate on evading its attacks.

"Any more bright ideas Zhou?"

"You can't beat the spirit it's too strong, go directly for the source of its power"

"You want me to attack the shaman? Wouldn't that be what you call dishonourable?" Haru answered with a tone of surprise

"You haven't got a choice right now, besides he doesn't look the honourable type"

"Well said Zhou" Haru looked up at Hao and realised he was too far away to attack, _I'll just have to do something about then._ Haru waited for the SOF to attack again and swerved to his right letting the spirits arm crash into the ground beside him again, this time though Haru jumped onto the spirits hand and started sprinting up it's arm towards Hao.

Hao looked slightly surprised at this course of action but made no attempt to stop Haru as he ran towards him. Just before Haru reached Hao the black haired shaman leapt into the air above Hao's head brought his sword crashing down in a diagonal slash; clearly attempting to slice his opponent in two.

Hao simply raised his arm and caught the blue blade single handed with no apparent effort. Haru's eyes widened in surprise, "Impossible"

"I think you'll find that the word impossible does not apply to me" Hao told the cold eyed shaman in front of him who was struggling to free his weapon from Hao's grasp. Hao chuckled to himself and raised his other hand and placed it on Haru's chest and summoned a fireball, which sent Haru flying through the air before he eventually landed on the ground creating a huge creator.

Hao jumped off the SOF shoulder and walked over to the still smoking creator. He cleared the smoke with a gesture of his hand and frowned as he saw that the creator contained only Haru's weighted training coat.

At that moment Hao felt a cold breeze blow past him and smiled. Hao quickly turned round to see Haru appear in front of him with a scowl on his face; his clothes and hair singed from the force of the fireball.

"You're still standing, that is impressive" Hao told Haru offering a smile

Haru's scowl grew deeper and he raised his left hand "Sphere!" A large black orb appeared around Hao and started pulsing with blue energy. Hao felt the energy coursing through him but it gave him no pain. He smirked at Haru and snapped his fingers, instantly the black orb shattered into a million pieces which slowly dissolved into nothing. "Not bad but I've seen better" Hao told Haru casually, he raised his right hand and summoned another fire ball, Haru narrowed his eyes and swerved to his left barley evading the hot molten mass.

Hao raised an eyebrow at this "So your faster without your coat, but how fast exactly?" Hao summoned another fireball, again Haru evaded it and then turned to face Hao, "I'm more than fast enough for you" he panted

Hao raised his other eyebrow at this and replied, "Really, you think so? We'll just have to test that then" Hao summoned another fireball but it was ten times larger than the others, abruptly it split into four more fireballs and those four split to make sixteen etc.etc. Until there were well over 60 fireballs facing Haru. Hao allowed himself a small smirk at the look on Haru's face, it was priceless. "I suggest that you start running" Hao advised the other shaman but Haru simply stood his ground and raised his sword. Hao shrugged "It's your funeral" and he launched all of his fireballs at once, Haru's arm moved in blur deflecting most of the molten orbs but there were too many and eventually he was thrown backwards by the force of the fireballs.

Hao smiled as he saw the shaman lying on the floor unconscious, he was about to order the SOF to pick him up when somehow Haru struggled to his feet and raised his sword again. Hao sighed, "Why don't you just give up? I've already told you you don't stand a chance. I've seen all your attacks before, they're not going to work against me so there's no point in you fighting, you've already lost"

When Haru heard this he laughed, "You think you've seen everything I can do? Your not even close, you may be stronger than me but that doesn't make you invincible…" Haru raised his sword and ran his hand over the blade again, this time it turned into a deep black blade with blue lightning running along the edge "…I've been working on a technique for someone just like you, it will destroy you"

Hao looked incredibly amused at this "You really think so? Well than lets see this new attack of yours, tell you what I won't even move" as Hao finished speaking he raised both his arms leaving himself completely defenceless.

Haru scowled and surged towards Hao his new blade raised, as he got within striking distance he yelled "OMNISLASH!" as he said those words Haru vanished and Hao blinked, "What the…" before Hao could finished his sentence seven copies of Haru appeared, surrounding Hao and they attacked as one; each of them swinging their blade and summoning a black arc of light that crackled with blue lighting, each of the attacks hit Hao creating a devastating explosion and a huge smoking crater, as the dust fell Haru suddenly reappeared behind where Hao had been, his face was pale and he gasping for breath, hestaggered forward and looked for Opacho, seeing him he slowly made his way over and held out his arm and at the same time panted "Give me my amulet"

"No" Opacho replied in a defiant tone

Haru scowled as he looked at the young child in front of him, if that last attack hadn't completely wiped him out he wouldn't even have asked, he would have just knocked the kid out and taken it back, but at the moment he was having enough trouble just standing up.

"You heard your master, he said that if I beat him you were to give me my amulet" Haru panted angrily.

Opacho laughed at this and then told Haru "Stranger is much mistaken if he believes that pitiful attack defeated master Hao"

"Quite right Opacho" said a sinister voice right behind Haru, before he could turn round he wasstruck in back and wassent flying through the airbefore crashing back down to earth. He got up slowly using his weapon for support; he was having problems breathing now, his breathing was raspy and came in short bursts, he started coughing and saw that he was coughing up blood, that meant that at least one of his ribs had pierced his lungs. Haru managed to turn round and saw Hao walking towards him with a frown on his face, there was a single scratch on his cheek which was bleeding freely, apart from that the boy seemed unharmed"You should learn to stay down" Hao told Haru darkly and he snapped his fingers. A large shadow appeared behind Haru and he looked up to see the SOF towering over him. The last thing Haru saw was it's giant fist hurtling towards him.

* * *

Author: well what do you think of myintroduction of Hao? You will be seeing a lot more of him now so if i'm doing something wrong tell me. also i'm thinking of adding some romance to the story so if there are any couples you really want to see tell me and i'll try and fit them in. 

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran + Matt: Glad you liked the long chapter although i don't think any of my other chapters will be that long. Glad to hear your feeling better and any advice you can give me about writing romantic scenes would be welcome as you seem tohave a lot ecperience with that genre.


	12. 11: New Offer

Chapter 11: New Offer

Opacho watched as the Spirit Of Fire (SOF) fist pummelled Haru into the ground and winced as he heard at least three bones snap from the force of the impact. Opacho turned to look at his master and saw that he still had the same dark expression on his face, this made Opacho uneasy because he had never seen Hao angry, it was slightly unsettling,

"Why is Hao angry?" the young child asked

Hao didn't answer for a moment and Opacho had to repeat his question before Hao responded,

"Don't worry Opacho I'm not angry, merely aggravated, however…" Hao's face relaxed into an easy grin that was strangely similar to Yoh's "… I have what I came for and that is what matters, Opacho would you go and pick up his coat and weapon, I shall want to examine them later. Now then where are the Hanagumi?" almost as soon as Hao said this he heard arguing from the ridge above him and sighed, "Will those girls ever get along? Oh well, come along Opacho it seems as though I shall have to break up yet another one of their fights". Hao jumped back onto the SOF shoulder and was followed immediately by Opacho who was struggling somewhat with the heavy coat, the SOF began to rise towards the ledge where the Hanagumi were arguing before Opacho coughed slightly and said "Master has forgotten something"

Hao turned to look at his little companion and saw him indicating to a large crater.

"Hmm what? Oh yes, we wouldn't want to leave behind our new guest would we? SOF pick him up, he seems slightly incapable right now"

The SOF bent down and picked up the unconscious shaman, whose head hung limply on his shoulders causing his hair to cover the front of his face.

"Now then I assume we have everything yes?" Hao looked towards Opacho as he said this and the child offered no complaint. "Good let us continue then"

* * *

The Hanagumi plus Mia had been wandering around in the wilderness for about an hour and a half. Kanna had been leading them with the map in front of her face for nearly the entire journey and kept yelling at people to shut up so she could read the "Completely Pointless and Bloody Stupid Map". 

Kanna's behaviour was really starting to get Mia's nerves and she was wondering how Macchi and Mari could stand her, they just kept plodding along behind the taller blue haired girl and talking to each other, only reverting to whispers when Kanna yelled at them. Mia checked her watch and saw that they had been lost for nearly two hours now and it was getting dark and Mia did not want to camp out here tonight. Mia decided she would try reading the map for once _after all it can't be that hard can it?_ Mia thought to herself and she walked right up behind Kanna and peered round her shoulder to look at the map and saw that Kanna was holding it upside down.

"Um Kanna, do you know how to read a map?" Mia ventured quietly

The blue haired Kanna whirled round to face Mia with a look of fury on her face,

"Of course I know how to read map" she snarled.

"Then why are you holding it upside down?" Mia asked trying hard not to grin

Kanna blushed slightly at this but her look of fury remained, "Well if you think it's so easy you can do it then!" and Kanna threw the map and small brown haired girl who caught it with ease. Mia laid the map on the floor and took a good look around her and then at the map again. She groaned as she realised that they were 10 miles from where they were supposed to be and that it would take them the rest of what was left of the day to get there. Mia pointed this out to the Hanagumi and suggested that they go back to the town and stay at hotel instead of looking for this "Hao guy" but the other three girls would have none of it and they adamantly refused to even consider turning round.

"Master Hao told Hanagumi to meet him in valley so Hanagumi will meet Hao in valley"

"Yeah, we can't turn our back's on Hao" Macchi piped in

"Not if you want to live anyway" Kanna added darkly

Mia looked at Kanna for a minute to determine if she joking but she remained straight faced and this worried Mia slightly; she had no idea who this Hao was, she just decided to tag along with these three because it had seemed like fun at the time, but now she wasn't so sure.

"What's so great about Hao anyway?" Mia asked casually, she regretted asking almost instantly because of the uneasy silence that followed her question; it was as though she had just crossed some sacred line.

Finally Kanna pulled out a cigarette, lit it and then replied, "We owe Hao our lives, without him none of us would be here today"

"Oh" Mia couldn't think of anything else to say and she looked down at the map again and the uneasy silence continued.

"Does Mia know how to reach master Hao?" Mari asked, Mia blinked and was tongue tied for a second before she could answer "Wha? Oh yeah, we just head down here and we should come to the valley".

The group started walking again and after a few more minutes they were arguing again as though nothing had happened although now it was because it was getting too dark to see where they were going and they kept bumping into each other.

* * *

Hao rose up from the valley on the SOF shoulder with Opacho right alongside him and Haru clutched in the giant spirits hand as they focused in on the angry cries that were coming from the valley ridge and Hao was quite amused by what he saw; it was pitch black but Hao had perfect night vision and had therefore had no problem seeing what was going on around him, you pick up those kind of skills when your over a thousand years old. The Hanagumi however were not so lucky and they continually bumped into each other and other things on the trail as they tried to make their down. Hao watched this for a few minutes before he noticed that there was someone else with Hanagumi. It was a girl who seemed to be the same age as Macchi and Mari although she was slightly smaller than them and she was vainly trying to read the map in front of her by pushing it as close to her face as possible. The girl looked oddly familiar but Hao couldn't seem to place her. 

"Opacho do you recognise that girl down there with the Hanagumi?"

Opacho squinted into the darkness and tried his best to make something out of the gloom but all he saw was shadows, "Sorry Master Opacho cannot see it is too dark"

"Hmm what? Oh I can do something about that" Hao said genially and he summoned a huge fireball which illuminated the whole area. This caused the Hanagumi to look up and start waving at Hao and Opacho to gain their attention.

"That girl down there Opacho, the one with the map" Hao indicated with a nod of his head. Opacho squinted again at the girl but finally shook his head and replied, "Opacho does not recognise strange girl"

"Oh well I suppose we shall just have to find out" Hao then manoeuvred the SOF toward the four girl's on the ridge who backed away quickly to make room for the giant spirit.

"You are late" Hao told the girls in a stern tone

"Its not my fault, Kanna's the one who got us lost" Macchi pouted as she said this

"Hey don't blame me! That map was defective no one would be able to read it" Kanna replied defiantly

"Mia was able to read it" Mari remarked with the same bored look in her eyes

For the first time Hao focused on Mia and took in the girl in front of him; she was possibly slightly older than him but she was also shorter than she was. She had long brown hair that was done into a ponytail that reached just below her shoulders and her eyes were a bright Safire green. Hao also noticed that Mia was staring back at him with a blank expression on her face, Hao treated her to his million dollar smile which caused her blush and look away quickly.

"Ah yes we appear to have a picked up a stray shaman, Macchi is this your handiwork again?" Hao directed his question to the red headed shaman

"uh well you see…" Macchi began but Hao waved her into silence

"Macchi I have already added one new member to our group tonight I see no reason why I should add a second"

"What are you talking about Hao?" Kanna asked bluntly

"If you will draw your attention to the figure down here" Hao indicated to the SOF left arm and all four girls looked own at the unconscious Haru whose head still hung limply forwards. Hao noticed this and frowned, "Well that's no good, SOF would you be so kind as to pick our friends head up so we can see him" the SOF shook its arm causing Haru's head to roll backwards and reveal his face.

"Now then allow me to introduce you to…" Hao began but was suddenly cut off by Mia's outburst of, "Haru?"

Hao instead of looking annoyed as he should have done, appeared interested by Mia's outburst. "You know him?" he asked Mia cheerfully.

Mia nodded and replied, "Yeah I've fought him twice and I've met his sister, did you beat him up? She asked in an amazed voice. Hao smiled at this question and simply nodded his head.

"Wow, you must be really strong" as Mia said this Macchi and Mari started giggling and a wry smile made it's way onto Kanna face, Mia turned round to face them "Hey what's so funny?"

"Oh nothing" Macchi managed to say in between giggles

Hao coughed slightly and the girl's turned back to look at him, Hao waited for a few seconds before he started talking to make sure he had their full attention, "Well if you girls have finished gossiping I believe I was questioning our newest member"

Kanna who was slightly quicker on the uptake then the other girls noticed the "new member" part and asked quickly, "Does that mean she stays?"

"Yes she can stay if she wants" as soon as Hao finished speaking Macchi ran up and hugged Mia and started telling her in an excited voice about all the fun stuff they were going to do.

* * *

Haru groaned and woke up, he regretted doing so almost instantly because of the amount of pain his body was sending him; his head felt like someone had just taken a sledgehammer to it, he couldn't move his left arm which normally isn't a good sign, his right shoulder hurt like hell and something was restricting his breathing. 

"Ah good I think he's waking up at last, Opacho would you go inform Hao"

Haru heard someone get up and open then close a door, he kept listening and heard the faint sound someone breathing a little way away from him, he scanned this person with his shaman senses and could tell immediately that the person was strong but that was about it. Haru decided against opening his eyes in the hope that this person would think he was asleep and leave.

"There's no point pretending, I can tell your awake" the voice responded as if reading Haru's thoughts, _so much for that idea then._ Haru opened his eyes and looked around, he seemed to be in a hotel room; he could see the tiny TV placed in a corner of the room, there was a balcony leading off to his left and on his right was phone with a card next to it which listed the speed dial numbers, one of which was "Room Service". Haru sat up and looked around again to see where the voice had come from, "Over here" Haru looked round and saw a man in another corner of the room; he was dressed in some type black robe like a priest he also had a black hat with a white band on it, he looked to be either in his late thirties or early forty's and he was reading a black book, Haru craned his neck to see the front cover but both covers were blank.

"I would advise against moving, you are seriously injured" the man remarked to Haru as he began to get out of bed. The remark caused Haru to pause and take a personal inventory; there was a thick white bandage around his forehead, his left arm was in a splint which explained why he couldn't move it, his chest was also bandaged but a little to tightly which was why he was having problems breathing, his right shoulder wasn't bandaged though and it still hurt like hell. Haru tried to move his right arm but got a stab of pain form his right shoulder.

"I told you not move" the man remarked casually leafing through his book

"No you _advised_ me not to move, and having taken your advice under consideration I have decided against it" Haru told the man as he sat up on the bed, his body protested at this course of action but he overruled it.

The man looked up at Haru and seemed surprised that he was up, "Very well I'm telling you not to move"

"And you would be?" Haru left the question hanging in the air and he tried to stand up but lost his balance and fell back onto the bed.

The man shook his head and sighed, "My name is Luca and I'm the one whose responsible for you even being able to stand up right now, do you know you nearly died of blood loss because three of your ribs had punctured your lungs? Not to mention the fact that your left arm was broken in several places and your skull was fractured"

"You forgot to mention the fact that my right shoulder is dislocated" Haru mentioned casually

Luca glanced at him for a second before replying "No it isn't"

"I think if anyone should know it would be me" Haru told Luca, "Unless you can come up with another reason for why I can't move my arm"

Luca frowned for a moment and then put his book down and walked over to Haru and began probing his right shoulder, Haru winced as his fingers hit the dislodged muscle and bone. "It would seem that you were correct, now hold still a moment" without further warning the man grasped Haru shoulder and popped it back into place. Haru gritted his teeth but didn't make a sound. Luca stepped and watched as Haru flexed his arm a few times to get the muscles moving again, Haru turned toward the man and said "Thank you"

Luca smiled at this, "well at least you know how to be polite, unlike most of the kids your age"

"Tell me how did I get here and where are my possessions?" Haru asked Luca

Before Luca could respond the door to the room opened and Hao walked in followed closely by Opacho, "Ah good he's awake" Hao grinned as he saw Haru's expression darken, "And I see he remembers me" Haru didn't bother to reply but he kept his gaze fixed on the younger shaman. Hao waved his arm towards the door and said "Thank you Luca but if you would please wait outside I would like to have my conversation in private" Luca nodded his head and collected his book and left the room closely followed by Opacho.

Hao stared at Haru for a few minutes but when the black haired shaman refused to talk Hao initiated the conversation himself, "You know I was surprised to learn how much we have in common" Haru's expression didn't change although he did raise one eyebrow slightly and Hao continued, "Yes you see people feared me for my power as well, they tried to kill me but when they could not they decided to murder my family instead, tell me how old were you when your father was killed?"

Haru blinked in surprise at the question, "How…"

"How do I know about your past? Well let's just say I have my sources, I have told no one else about your past so you don't need to worry about that. Now then would you answer my question, how old were you?" Hao said, his voice had taken on a more sombre tone.

Haru was silent for moment but he eventually replied "…five"

"And after having watched your parents die you felt no anger? No hatred? No sense of revenge?" as Hao finished speaking he noticed that Haru's eyes gleamed with malice and that both his fists were clenched, Hao smiled as he realised that he was making progress.

"When we last met I asked you to join me in return for power and you refused, this time I have a new offer; If you join me and I succeed in becoming Shaman King I will tell you who ordered your parents death and I will tell you where to find them, in short I am offering you revenge, so will you join me?"

Haru was silent for a time before he finally responded, "How do I know I can trust you?

Hao was thoughtful for a moment and then said, "I give you my word that you can trust me"

"Not good enough"

Hao smiled at this before he responded, "Are you suggesting that I would break my word?"

"Yes"

Hao laughed at the blacked haired shamans straight-faced expression, "You know if almost any of my other followers said that I would turn them to ash"

Haru didn't reply to this, he just kept his gaze fixed on Hao as though certain he would try and attack him. Hao frowned at his lack of response before saying, "Very well as a gesture of good faith…" Hao extended his right hand towards Haru and it emitted a bright flash of white light, which dazzled Haru for a few seconds, when his vision cleared Haru realised that the pain from his arm and head were gone and that his left arm was no longer in a splint, "…there I think you will find that you are able to move more freely now"

Haru stood up and flexed both arms and cracked his neck a few times before he turned back to face Hao, his expression was still blank. Hao rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket and pulled out Haru's amulet and tossed it to him. Haru's arm instantly snaked out and snatched it out of the air and he placed it over his neck.

"There now, I haven given you back your health and your amulet, if that is not reason enough to trust me then what is?"

"Where is Zhou?"

"Do you accept my offer?" Hao countered

Haru nodded his head slightly, "Yes…for now"

Hao smiled at the response and got up and started for the door but paused as Haru asked, "What about Zhou?"

"Both your spirit and your weapon are in my possession, they shall be returned to you when I deem fit" Hao said with a smug look.

"I have already said that I trust you and I have accepted your offer, what do gain by keeping Zhou and the Dragon Blade?"

Hao laughed at this and replied, "It's not about what I gain, it's what I keep. You see while you say that you trust me and you have accepted my offer that does mean I trust you. So as long as I have your spirit and your weapon I know that you will not go back on your promise, so I suppose I gain obedience, now then have a good day" as Hao finished speaking he vanished in a column of fire leaving Haru glaring at the spot where he had been standing.

* * *

Author: so what do you think? Sorry it took longer than usual but I've had a lot of other work to do, I've got my driving test tomorrow so my parent have been going on about how should be studying (like it's going to make a difference now). 

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: Glad to hear your finally out of bed, Chapter 70 was awesome by the way, thanks for the advice although I don't know if I'll have time to use it before I go away, hope you like this chapter, apart from that I can't think of anything else to say.

To everyone else: PLEASE REVIEW!


	13. 12: And This Is

Chapter 12: And This Is

Haru glared at the spot where Hao had been standing and thought, _he's starting to piss me off, _Haru sighed and made his way back to bed and sat down and tried to think about what he could do. Hao's offer of revenging his parents was tempting but he didn't like the idea of being powerless because he no longer had a weapon or a spirit, _well not quite powerless_ Haru thought with a wry grin as he fingered the amulet Hao had returned. He couldn't leave because that would mean leaving Zhou, equally he couldn't beat the crap out of Hao and make him relinquish Zhou because he wasn't strong enough, _not yet anyway._ So at the moment there was nothing he could do about his situation, he would just have to go along with whatever Hao had planned.

At that moment the door to Haru's room opened and Luca stepped back in, he scanned the room quickly and when he didn't see Hao asked Haru, "Has he left?"

Haru nodded then lay down on the bed; for some reason he felt tired but he couldn't figure out why.

"Well I see Hao at least undid the damage he created" Luca observed as he saw that Haru no longer had any wounds, "There's no point in you just lying there you may as well get up and walk around, I would introduce you to everyone but I have some matters to look into. We've rented out the entire hotel so anyone you see should be part of the group, you should go and look for Opacho" seeing Haru blank face Luca added, "He's the small African child you saw come in with Hao, he gets along with everybody so he should be able to introduce you, there are some clothes and things in the closet over there" Luca nodded his head to Haru and left.

Haru stayed on the bed for a few minutes and then abruptly swung his legs over the side and got up. He made his way over to the sink and filled it to the brim with ice-cold water and then dunked his head in it to try and wake himself up, it seemed to work so he grabbed a towel and started drying his hair as he made his way to the closet that Luca had indicated to earlier. After sifting through the clothes there he finally selected a clean pair of blue jeans along with a black T-shirt that had picture of a shark on the back underneath the words "Bite Me" he pulled on some socks and found his trainers in the lower compartment of the closet but he couldn't find his coat anywhere, he shrugged and left his room.

* * *

"Come on I thought you wanted to get stronger?" Kanna taunted Mia as she collapsed on the ground from exhaustion, "You telling me that's the best you got? How the hell did you make it past the preliminary's?"

Mia scowled and pushed herself up onto her feet, ever since she had joined Hao and told him she wanted to get strong enough to beat Haru it had been non stop training every morning from either Kanna or Peyote and Mia had come to despise them both.

Peyote constantly beat her into the ground because Hao had told him to work on her endurance. At first Mia had done quite well against one of Peyote's little skeletal minions but then he had two them of them gang up on her and she had found herself getting hit from behind every time she started an attack, Mia had complained that this was unfair and in response Peyote had added another of his skeletal dolls into the training until Mia was spending more time flat on her face then on her feet, she'd since learned to keep her mouth shut.

Kanna was no better, she would have Mia run 10 mile laps everyday no matter where they were staying; this apparently was to improve her stamina and her speed because whenever Mia started to slow down Kanna would have Ashcroft (her guardian spirit) hit her with his spear until she started sprinted full speed again. There was also the fact that Hao had replaced her lightweight aluminium razor rings with steel ones of the same size but filled with lead so that they were twenty times heavier than she was used to.

"Come on get up, how do you expect to get better with that lazy attitude, Ashcroft get her moving" Kanna barked to her guardian spirit who picked up his spear whacked it across Mia's back with a resounding "Thud" which sent her sprawling across the ground, angrily Mia pushed herself back onto her feet and started running again, a cold determination in her eyes as she pushed herself on. She finally made it back to the hotel and Kanna eased up, "That's enough for today, although you barely did any work we've run out time, so I suggest you get some real food not the fast food crap, you need to build some muscle" with that inspirational message Kanna turned on her heel and walked off to her room, leaving Mia to collapse on one of the seats in the hotel lobby. Mia took a deep breath and released spirit control and Kira appeared in front of her.

"Are you all right?" she asked worriedly

Mia just nodded her head; she was too exhausted to say anything

At this point Bill walked round the corner and saw Mia. Bill was well over 6foot tall and was wearing his usual American football uniform with the spiked shoulder pads and red helmet that covered most of his face, he had the potential to be really intimidating; he looked like the type of guy who would have fun picking on someone when they were down. However his personality was the complete opposite; he couldn't stand to see other people being picked on and always tried to help others when he could as long as it didn't get in the way of Hao's plans, he also had a great sense of humour and just by hanging around he had the ability to cheer people up when they were depressed.

"You all right kid" Bill said as he made his way over and sat down on one of the seats that groaned threateningly but managed to stay in one piece.

Mia nodded her head again, she usually hated it when people called her 'kid' but right now she was too tired to be angry.

"Well at least your getting a good workout, I'll have to tell Kanna and Peyote to keep doing whatever it is they're doing" Bill remarked as he leaned back in his chair which groaned even more threateningly. Mia's head came up as Bill finished speaking and she glared at him with all her might because she still didn't have enough strength to speak. Bill raised his hands defensively and said, "Hey don't blame me you're the one who…"

SNAP!

The chair that Bill had been sitting had finally collapsed under the weight of the 6foot plus jock and he fell unceremoniously on his back.

"God damn it" Bill shouted as fell over and then struggled to get back up. Mia finally found her voice and started to laugh.

"Well I'm glad you found it funny" Bill grumbled, "I mean why the hell has every thing got to be god damn small"

"They aren't too small, you're too big" Macchi said with a giggle as she appeared round another corner of the hotel bearing two ice creams, one of which she handed to Mia and the other she kept for herself.

"Thanks" Mia said feebly

"Don't I get an ice cream?" Bill asked in mock dejection

"Hey I've only got two hands, anyway you can get one yourself" Macchi said as she stuck out her tongue out at Bill.

"Well I can tell when I'm not wanted" Bill mumbled as he walked off slowly, just before he went around the corner he turned to face Mia again, "Keep up the good work kid, it'll pay off later trust me"

Mia was too busy eating her ice cream to reply, so Bill just shook his head and walked round the corner. Mia finished eating her ice cream and leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh of contentment.

"I thought that would make you feel better" Macchi said with a grin as she finished her own ice cream, "Now come on there's loads of stuff to do here and I don't know how long Hao's gonna let us stay"

Mia nodded in agreement; she had been with Hao for two weeks and almost everyday Hao had made them make camp in the middle of a field or something instead of letting them stay in a nice warm hotel, this was apparently to let the shaman become closer to nature but Mia personally though it was because Hao was a cheapskate, although today she had been forced to reconsider this because Hao had booked the entire hotel for them so that there were only shaman in the building and the hotel staff.

"Let's go find Mari" Macchi suggested as she grabbed Mia's hand and dragged her off before waiting for Mia to reply, "I think she was over by the pool, come on" and without further ado Macchi proceeded to drag Mia all around the hotel looking for the blond haired doll master.

* * *

The hotel was larger than Haru expected; it had four floors and in the centre of the building was a fountain of some sort and all the rooms were situated around it. Haru made his way down slowly so that he could examine the entire building which appeared to be empty. He couldn't see any signs of life anywhere, puzzled he walked down a corridor to his left and came to a set of double doors underneath the sign "BAR" Haru walked straight in and looked around; it appeared to be empty except for the hotel employee behind the bar, he turned around and was about to leave when his shaman sense picked up a trace of Furyoku. Haru stopped and surveyed the room again and noticed a figure crouched in a corner to his right. Haru couldn't tell right away whether it was a man or a woman because he couldn't see their face; the figure was wearing a sand coloured poncho decorated with green cactuses and had a sombrero on it's head and was also wearing goggles of some type and had a cloth covering the rest of it's face. There was also a guitar strapped across it's back.

Haru walked over slowly and took a seat opposite the figure.

"I assume you're with Hao?" Haru asked stoically, the figure glanced up but did not reply. "I'm looking for someone named Opacho" Haru continued unperturbed at the figures lack of response. There was silence for a few minutes as though the figure was waiting for Haru to leave, finally the figure murmured, "…lounge…" Haru nodded once and got up and made his way to the barman. When Haru approached him the barman turned and looked at Haru malevolently, "I don't serve kids" he told Haru with snarl on his face.

"I never said I wanted to buy anything" Haru told the man calmly

"Then why are you in here?" the barman growled

"I wanted to ask you for directions" Haru said in the same calm tone

"Then get a map kid" the barman snapped and started to turn away. Haru sighed as his arm snapped out and he grabbed the barman by the throat and lifted him off his feet.

"Let's try this again shall we?" Haru said with just a touch of annoyance.

"I'm going to put you down and when I ask you for directions you're going to give them to me, understand? Just blink once for yes" Haru told the barman as he struggled to speak, the barman blinked and Haru put him down. "Good, now which way is it to the lounge?"

"It's on the second floor sir, third door on your right from the stairs" the barman gulped as he backed away.

"Thank you and remember there are people who don't have my amount of patience so consider yourself fortunate." Haru told the frightened barman as he turned to go and look for the lounge.

Haru found the lounge exactly where the barman had said it was and walked in. It was a large area covered with stools, chairs, couches and the occasional table. Looking around he saw large Chinese man sitting on one of the couches; the guy appeared to be talking to someone Haru couldn't see so he walked a little closer and saw that there was a little kid sitting crossed legged on top of one stools opposite the large Chinese.

In between the two was a Chinese checkerboard and it appeared that the small child was losing. Haru assumed that this was Opacho and started to make his way towards them but before he could get close enough to start a conversation was halted by the spirit of a giant Panda which rose up on its hind legs and toward above Haru and started growling threateningly. Haru ignored it and stepped straight through it.

"What is it Shion?" the large Chinese man asked a he turned his head to look at the fearsome spirit and he saw Haru walking toward him. "We have an uninvited guest Opacho"

"I was told to look for someone named Opacho, I take it that would be you?" Haru directed his question to the little African child on top of the stool who nodded and replied, "What does stranger want with Opacho?"

"Firstly my name is Haru, I suppose I am the newest member of Hao's group. I was told by Luca that you would be able to introduce me to the rest of the group.

Opacho nodded when he heard this and said something quickly in Chinese that Haru was unable to pick up. The large Chinese man chuckled to himself and stood up and offered his hand which was five times larger than Haru's. Haru took and the Large Chinese man introduced himself.

"My names ZanChin, Opacho tells me that I am supposed to introduce myself in a fashion that you'll recognise.

In response to this Haru let go of the large mans hand and gave a slight bow and said in Chinese "I am pleased to meet you and you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover"

ZanChin raised his eyebrows and said, "Impressive, have you been to China before?"

Haru straightened up and answered "A few times, my sister use to work there so I had to pick up the language"

ZanChin nodded at this and gestured to something behind Haru, the large Panda spirit that had tried to halt Haru before came strolling up to its master on all fours. "This is my spirit partner Shion, don't let his appearance fool you he's not as harsh as he appears" ZanChin gestured to the checker board behind and asked, "Do you play? Opacho hasn't been able to give me much competition lately"

"Opacho has won three times" Opacho said indignantly.

"Yes but we've had 12 games" ZanChin reminded him, he turned back to Haru, "well how about it?"

"I'm afraid I don't know how to play" Haru admitted in an uninterested tone

ZanChin frowned and turned back to Opacho, "Well I guess I'll just have to keep playing …" Opacho quickly cut in, "Opacho must introduce Haru to everyone, Opacho has no more times for games" and the African child abruptly jumped off the stool and started moving towards the exit. ZanChin chuckled again but offered no compliant and he sat himself down on the couch. Haru stood where he was for a second, until Opacho called out to him from the doorway, "Is Haru coming?"

They made their way around the hotel slowly, checking to make sure that they didn't miss anyone, in that time Haru came to learn a lot about Hao and how he had saved each of his followers from whatever their situation happened to be. Normally Haru disliked people who continuously talked but there was something about Opacho that stopped him from becoming annoyed. It wasn't the fact that he was a child; Haru had met enough children to know that he could easily become annoyed by their slightest actions but this didn't seem to apply to Opacho. Haru thought about it for a while and decided it was the fact that although Opacho was a child he had the ability to be extremely responsible and didn't talk about pointless topics but had the ability to include anyone in a conversation.

Opacho led Haru outside and then round to a side of the hotel and they came to a type of sports/recreational area; there was a relatively large pool placed against the wall of the hotel with a few deck chairs which at the moment were empty. There were three girls standing at the edge of the pool looking up at one of the windows on the fourth floor of the hotel that was just above the pool. Opacho walked up to a girl that had long blue hair and was wearing a black tube top, "Kanna, Opacho needs to…" but the girl just ignored him. Opacho tried a few more times and then started poking the girls leg until she looked down at Opacho with an angry look on her face which disappeared when she saw it was Opacho.

"What do you want Opacho I'm kinda waiting for something here"

"Kanna Opacho needs to…"

"Yipeee!"

A red haired girl dived out of the fourth floor window and did a few somersaults before she grabbed her legs and did a cannon ball into the pool completely soaking all of those by the poolside, Opacho however was shielded by the much larger Kanna and as a result only got his feet wet, Haru had still been standing a little ways away from the pool and therefore remained perfectly dry, he decided to stay back for a little while longer because it seemed that the blue haired girl was about to go totally berserk.

"Macchi what the hell did you do that for!" the girl named Kanna stormed at the red head as she climbed out of the pool.

"It was fun, besides you're the one who dared me to do it" the girl called Macchi said as she grabbed a towel and started drying herself off.

"I didn't tell you to get us soaking wet!" Kanna cried in outrage

"I know" Macchi said with a big grin on her face

"Mari is not happy" said a blond haired girl as she started to walk menacingly towards Macchi, who gulped and started to back away, she turned to the third girl who had been standing by the pool and had not yet spoken, "Come on Mia you thought it was funny didn't you?"

"Yeah right up to the point when I got soaked!" the brown haired girl stormed. Haru thought the girl looked familiar but he couldn't place her because her back was towards him.

Macchi glanced around nervously now looking for anyway out and she Opacho who was standing just behind Kanna, "Hey! Opacho! What are you doing here?" Macchi called out hoping to distract the other girls. Her plan worked and all the girls turned round to face Opacho who was still looking slightly annoyed by the fact that he was being ignored.

"Opacho came to introduce Hao's new follower" said Opacho as he gestured behind him to where Haru was standing.

"Um who are you talking about Opacho?" Kanna asked confused. Opacho turned round and saw that Haru was no longer where he had been standing but he seemed to have disappeared.

"He was talking about me" said a voice to Kanna's right, Kanna yelped and jumped backwards and fell into the pool. Everyone started laughing except for Haru who only had a slight grin on his face as he watched Kanna come to the surface spluttering.

"Where the hell did he come from?" Kanna asked angrily as she climbed out of the pool. Haru simply shrugged and walked over to Opacho.

"Are these girls part of the group?" he asked in a bored tone

Opacho nodded and turned to face the girls again and gestured to Haru, "This is Haru, Haru has excepted Hao's offer to join Hao's cause" Opacho told the girls simply

"I wouldn't go that far" Haru mumbled under his breath

Opacho ignored him and turned to each of the girls in turn and introduced them.

"This is Kanna", Kanna was still quite wet and looked angrily at Haru, "I'd start running if I were you" she told him

"This is Macchi", Macchi was bouncing up and down on her toe's and had a big grin on her face, "Hiya, pleased to meet ya!" Macchi then turned to the blonde haired girl and whispered "L'ho detto era carino", the blonde haired girl nodded and whispered back, "Mari conviene". Kanna tutted as she heard this but didn't comment. Opacho frowned and said, "Macchi is not being polite"

Haru was silent for a moment and then looked at the blond haired girl and said, "Perché lei porta quella bambola?" both Macchi and the blond girl looked stunned for a second and then started blushing. "Serves you right" Kanna laughed

Opacho was laughing at the looks on the two girls faces, he calmed himself down and gestured to the blonde haired girl.

"This is Mari", Mari was still too busy blushing to respond to the introduction.

Opacho gestured to the fourth girl and said "This is…" but he was cut off as both the girl and Haru said "we've met" at the same time, the girl glared at Haru who just studied her for a second before he said, "Your names Mai isn't it?"

"It's Mia and you know it" the girl retorted angrily.

"What are you doing here? I thought Hao was only interested in strong shaman" Haru asked in his usual emotionless voice.

Mia fumed when she heard this but couldn't think of anything to say so she just shoved past Haru intending to storm off, but as she shoved past she got an idea and tried to push Haru into the pool, however Haru pivoted on his right foot so that Mia lost her balance and would have stumbled into the pool except that Haru's arm shot out and grabbed her wrist so that she was leaning dangerously over the edge.

"You should be more careful, if I remember correctly you can't swim can you?" Haru told her with a slight look of concern on his face. Mia gulped and nodded; she had nearly drowned when she was four and as a result had never learnt how to swim. She had also developed a phobia of deep water, although deep was anything that was above her shoulders, and the pool she noticed was over nine foot deep, funny how you never notice something like that until you think your going to drown.

Haru slowly pulled Mia back from the edge and saw that her face had gone quite pale, but now that both her feet were on firm ground her colour came rushing back and she blushed embarrassed, she shoved Haru out of the way and headed inside. Macchi and Mari followed her but Kanna stayed behind, "How the hell did you know she couldn't swim?"

"She talks too much" Haru responded simply.

* * *

Note:Italian "L'ho detto era carino" means "I told you he was cute" "conviene" means "agree" "Perche lei porta quella bambola" means "Whay are you carrying that doll"

* * *

Author: well what do you think? I'm not too sure about it myself because I haven't had a lot of time on it; my parents have decided that I spend too much time on the computer and keep kicking me off whenever I start to get a good chapter flowing.

If you think that it isn't as good as the other chapters send me a review and I'll try and improve, however I don't know how much time I'll have. Anyway sorry about the long update as I said I haven't had a lot of time and unfortunately you may have to wait even longer for the next chapter.

Wow finally some more reviewers; I thank you for taking the time to review my story:

Mikauzoran: Glad you liked the chapter, I'm not too sure about this one I tried to keep all of Hao's followers in character but as I haven't seen the entire series of Shaman King I'm just guessing, but your info helped a load, also two questions: 1) Patch village is in south America isn't it? 2) is En Tao Ren's uncle or his father I'm not sure.

Shackle: glad you liked Haru, I'm trying to make Mia more humble but her spoiled attitude is a major part of her character. Anyway as to the pairing I would like to keep that a surprise, there may be more than one though.

Shale 101: glad you liked it thanks for the review

master kenarina Asakura: glad your enjoying the story I'll try and update as often as I can


	14. 13: First Task

Chapter 13: First Task

Haru spent the rest of the day wandering around the hotel with Opacho and getting to know the rest of Hao's followers.

There was Zen and Ryo; they called themselves 'The Boz' for someone reason. Haru couldn't tell which was which because they acted exactly the same all time. They always seemed to be together and appeared to have a great interest in music despite the fact that they couldn't play to save their lives. Haru knew this for a fact because when Opacho had introduced them they had insisted on giving him the 'honour' of listening to one of their songs, Haru hadn't complained to start with but within ten seconds he was wondering which would be more painful; their music or removing his own ears. The music just really seemed to strike a nerve in Haru; it was like listening to nails on blackboard, it had taken all his will power not to jump forward and crush their vocal cords, as it was he had had to listen to twenty minutes of their 'music' and at the end they had asked for his opinion. Haru had told them that their level of talent was 'unparalleled' and The Boz had seemed quite pleased by this and were about to perform an encore but Haru had quickly suggested that they save their 'talent' for a larger audience and had then quickly retreated to find Opacho who had wandered off as soon as The Boz had mentioned their music.

Haru found Opacho under a tree outside the hotel talking to a guy in eastern robes with a turban on his head Opacho saw Haru and waved him over. The guy in the white turban was called Mahammed but he preferred to be called Turbine. He didn't really talk much for which Haru was silently thankful because his head was still throbbing from the Boz's recital.

Then there was Bill, the giant football player who used the spirits of his deceased football team to pull of incredibly powerful attacks. He seemed like a good guy to Haru until he had shaken his hand; Bill had gripped Haru's hand so hard that he had nearly broken his wrist, Haru's face hadn't changed as they were shaking hands and when he had asked Bill to let go the guy had seemed surprised at something but didn't comment. Haru's was hand was still numb and he was betting it would be a few hours before the feeling started to come back.

Haru was introduced to some more of Hao's follower's but they didn't really stand out in his mind. One thing he had figured that they all had in common was that they were all fiercely loyal to Hao, so Haru couldn't expect any help from them if he decided to try and confront Hao. Not that he would have any chance of winning.

Haru was thinking this as he was walking around with Opacho and something must have shown on his face because the little kid asked, "What is Haru thinking about?"

"Hmm? I was just thinking that Hao has managed to create the most loyal team I have ever seen but there is one thing I don't understand" Haru didn't finish his sentence but waited for Opacho to ask him

"What does Haru not understand?" Opacho asked on cue

"Well why am I here? I owe Hao nothing; I have no sense of loyalty towards him like the rest of you do, if anything I can't wait for a chance to beat the crap out of him. Surely it would have been easier for him to simply kill once he beat me, not that I'm complaining about his decision." Haru added quickly.

Opacho just shrugged before replying, "Haru is strong, Hao believes that he can use Haru's strength"

"So you're saying that I'm just a tool? Something to make his life easier? You really know how make someone feel respected Opacho" Haru said with a hint of bitterness

"Anyway I'm not nearly as strong as some of the guys Hao keeps around, I mean Bill for starters could probably take me down with one hand behind his back" Haru continued

"That is where you're wrong" said a voice behind Haru. Haru didn't even bother to turn around and just replied, "Don't you have something better to do than sneak up on people?"

"Not really" Hao answered genially, Haru turned to face him and Hao continued talking, "I see that you have been getting acquainted with the rest of my followers, what do you think of them?"

"You've chosen well, I don't think you could have found a group more loyal" Haru replied honestly

Hao laughed at this and said, "That annoys you doesn't it? Well don't worry in time you'll come to be just as loyal as them"

"Just what have you been smoking?" Haru responded

Hao chuckled at this statement and said, "Has anyone ever told you that you should be a comedian?" Haru didn't even crack a smile but continued to look at him straight-faced. Hao frowned and said, "Well maybe not, you don't always have to hide your feelings, you should laugh sometimes, it would make you much more agreeable and who knows you might get yourself a girlfriend"

"Exactly when did you get a degree in teenage psychology?" Haru countered

Hao sighed, "You know if you continually hide your emotions you won't get any stronger; a shamans emotions allow him to tap a source of power that normally remains hidden, that was one of reasons why I was able to beat you so easily, you kept refusing to give in to your emotions"

"Is there a reason why you're here?" Haru asked in a bored voice

A look of annoyance crossed Hao's features but they quickly changed to an evil grin, "Why yes now that you mention it, I have come up with a task that I wish you to perform, if you complete it I will return your weapon and your spirit, but if you fail…"

"I won't" Haru stated simply

Hao's grin widened slightly, "Very well, but if you do fail I will allow the Hanagumi to think of a suitable punishment, I seem to have heard that Kanna and Mia are not particularly fond of you"

"That's one way of putting it" Haru muttered

"Now then your as to your task" Hao conjured up an image out of thin air showing a small boy in a white jacket with green hair, "This is Lyserg, he is somewhere within the city, you are to locate him and relieve him of his pendulum crystal, it shouldn't be too much of a problem for you, just make sure that you tell him you're working for me"

"Why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me?" Haru said dryly

Hao didn't respond but he snapped his fingers and Haru's coat appeared in his hand, "I believe that this is yours" Hao said handing Haru the coat, Haru slipped it on but something felt different.

"This coat is too light" he told Hao. Hao raised an eyebrow and snapped his fingers and Haru staggered under the weight that the jacket suddenly obtained.

"Is that better?" Hao asked with a grin on his face, "I want you to keep the jacket on the entire time that you're searching for Lyserg and do not take it off until you return"

Haru straightened with difficulty and nodded his head

"Good, now I suggest that you start your search at the market square; just about everyone passes through there at one time or another. If you are not back by midday tomorrow I will send Opacho to look for you" as Hao finished speaking he snapped his fingers and Haru vanished in a column of fire.

* * *

Mia had been walking around the hotel with Hanagumi trying to think of a way to get back at Haru, the guy definitely needed a lesson in humility and Mia knew just the people to do it; namely the Hanagumi and herself. Unfortunately all her ideas required Haru to be bound and gagged or restrained in someway and that was a problem with Haru because, as Mia had learned, the guy could get out of anything.

Mia had shared her thoughts with the Hanagumi and they had been equally stumped when Mia had told them of Haru's ability to morph.

"So we can't tie him up or anything" Macchi said slowly

"Well you could but he could get out of it whenever he wanted" Mia replied

"I guess we could slip the guy some kind of drug" Kanna had suggested, "I know Luca has some knock out pills"

"Yeah that would work" Macchi said excitedly

"But how would we get him to take them?" Mia asked

"Oh that's easy, we just slip a few pills into his food when he isn't looking" Kanna said confidently

Mia wasn't sure that this would work but decided not to mention this and instead asked, "Okay but what do we do when he's fallen asleep?"

"Peyote" Mari said simply

The other girls looked at Mari for a minute and then a wicked grin came onto Macchi and Kanna's face, Mia however was still confused.

"Mari your brilliant" Kanna said with a laugh

"Yeah great idea Mari" Macchi said and she ran up hugged the blonde haired girl excitedly

"How does Peyote have anything to do with this" Mia asked still confused

"What? Oh yeah you don't know, well Mia you know Peyote controls those little skeleton things?" Kanna said slowly

"Yeah, I've had to fight them just about every day I'm not with you" Mia said bitterly

Kanna ignored this and continued, "Well if someone is asleep or unconscious then Peyote can put one of his little skeleton friends inside said person and, hey presto instant human puppet"

Mia's face suddenly took on a wicked grin that matched those of the Hanagumi, but it fell suddenly as something occurred to her, "Yeah but how are we going to get Peyote to help us? I mean he doesn't exactly strike me as the helpful sort"

"Oh don't worry I think I can persuade him" Kanna cracked her knuckles as she said this and went off to find Peyote. Leaving Mia, Macchi and Mari to think of what to do with Haru once they had him under their control.

As Kanna walked off to find Peyote two figures moved away from the pillar they had been hiding behind as they had listened to the girls conversation, "well Opacho it seems that tomorrow could be very interesting indeed, hmm using puppet spirits to take control of unconscious gir.. I mean humans, why didn't I ever think of that?" Hao said as smile made its way slowly onto his face.

"Master should not be thinking dirty thoughts" Opacho reprimanded Hao as he waved his finger in front of Hao's face. Hao laughed and replied, "one day Opacho you'll have the same problem, now I'm going to have a quick chat with Luca about his pills"

* * *

Haru had been sitting at the café for about two hours; his eyes sweeping from side to side as he scanned the market for his target. It was an impossible task he knew, there was no way he would be able to keep watch on everyone that entered the market square. Hao had clearly devised this task just so he would fail. Sighing Haru paid for his drink and got up, he had gotten used to the weight of the coat now although it was heavier than he was use to and that meant that he moved more slowly.

It was late in the afternoon now and people were starting to leave and some of the stalls had closed down, Haru approached one of the market stalls that was still open and asked about a boy with green hair. The stall owner had never seen a boy with green hair before nor had the stall owner next to him or the one down the street. Haru was beginning to lose hope when he saw a man mingling with what remained of the crowed trying to sell what appeared to be fake Rolex watches.

Haru grinned as he saw the man, he knew their type; they would wander round all day trying to sell whatever they were holding, they normally worked in groups and as a result would have seen everyone who passed through the market.

Haru approached the man slowly and reached him just as he failed to sell a watch to an old couple.

"Really sir it will be the envy of all your friends and I guarantee you will not find one cheaper" as the couple moved away Haru heard the man mutter under his breath, "Miserable old bastard"

Haru approached the man from behind and 'accidentally' bumped into him, as he did so his left hand went into the street vendors pocket, which surprising was quite full.

"watch where you're going kid" the man told him angrily.

"My apologies, I was wondering if you could help me" Haru said to the man. The man turned round surprised and as soon he saw Haru his eyes took in the expensive looking coat, the clean jeans and what looked to be designer sneakers although they had just been a present from his sister. The man also noticed that Haru was not wearing a watch.

Instantly the mans anger left him and he put on a cheery demeanour, "Greeting sir, have you come to buy a watch to impress the ladies?" the man said with a false smile.

"Unfortunately no" the man's smile disappeared and he began to turn away but Haru grabbed his shoulder, "I was hoping you could help with some information" as Haru said this he pulled out the pile of notes he had taken from the unsuspecting man minutes before. The Man's smile instantly reappeared.

"What can I do to help you sir?"

"I was hoping you could help me locate somebody" Haru said in a level voice

"What makes you think I can findthis person?"

"Four things, first he will have passed through this market in the last few hours, two he does not exactly have what you might call a common appearance, three being such an experienced merchant of the streets you will surely have noticed a person that stands out and four I am offering you a lot of money for the information"

The mans chest swelled slightly from the flattery and Haru grinned inwardly; this guy would be even easier than he thought, now he just had to hope that he had seen this Lyserg.

"Alright" said the man, "What does this guy look like?" as he said this his hand reached for the money in Haru's hand but Haru took a step back.

"He is slightly younger than myself, he is about two head shorter than I am…" The man cut off Haru suddenly

"I thought you said he would stand out"

"I haven't finished yet, what makes him stand out is the fact that he has green hair, now tell me have seen anyone matching the description?" Haru said gazing at the man intently watching his eyes to check for any hint of deceit.

"The man smiled slightly but said, "A name would be helpful"

"The name is unimportant, now where have you seen him?" Haru asked sternly

"What makes you think I've seen him?" the man countered

"Well if you haven't seen him…" Haru started to walk away

"Wait, wait, wait my young friend" Haru slowed down and turned back to the man, "you know I think I might have seen such a boy" the man said oily

"Where?"

"Ah, that's where my memory starts to fail me you see"

Haru sighed and handed the man some of his own money back.

"Ah I think I remember now, I saw him walk behind you not five minutes ago"

"Which way did he go?" Haru said quickly at the same time keeping his gaze fixed on the man's eyes

"Down to the docks that way" the man said point to his left, he wasn't lying so Haru handed him all the money and quickly left in pursuit of his target.

It was getting darker now and the lights from the street lamps cast eerie shadows on the alleys behind the warehouses, if you looked close enough you would swear that there was something hidden in the shadows.

Lyserg however was not watching the shadows, he was making his way back to the X-Law base after having spent the day gathering info about the hotel Hao and followers were staying at. Jeanne was thinking of attempting an assault on the hotel when Hao was absent, thus eliminating some of his followers. Lyserg had also found out that Hao had recently acquired two new followers but all he had been able to find out about them was that one was boy and the other a girl, both slightly older than he was.

Lyserg thought back to beginning of the day, he was still slightly shocked by what had happened.

_Flashback _

_He had been walking down the street towards the market, it was about 5 am so the streets where somewhat quite, Lyserg had been thinking about the days when his parents were still alive and was not concentrating on where he was going and was slightly surprised when he bumped into someone._

"_Sorry" Lyserg said sincerely as he turned away from the stranger_

"_Apology excepted" said the figure with a cold chuckle._

Lyserg froze; he knew that voice. "Hao!" Lyserg stormed as he rounded on his parent's murderer. But the boy had vanished.

"_Back here" said a voice behind Lyserg. Lyserg automatically twisted round and threw his pendulum crystal at the source of the voice. Hao caught the crystal between thumb and forefinger an inch from his face, which had a look of amusement on it._

"_You're still using this thing? I thought Macro had given you a new spirit medium you really should start using it; otherwise you'll never get any stronger._

_Lyserg scowled and drew the small gun from a pocket in his jacket and had aimed at Hao and was just about to fire, when Hao raised his hand and started waving a finger in Lyserg's face._

"_uh, uh, uh, not now" as if on cue a bunch of fisherman emerged from a side alley carrying a net full of fish which they had just caught. Lyserg's scowl had deepened but he withdrew his weapon as the fisherman walked between Hao and himself and when they had passed Hao had disappeared._

_End of Flashback_

_One of these days I will make him pay, _Lyserg thought to himself furiously as he wandered round a corner into a seemingly deserted alley, he paused for a moment and tried to calm himself down; he wouldn't be able to think clearly if he was this angry.

"Is your name Lyserg?"

Lyserg spun round at the mention of his name and looked for the source of the voice but he couldn't see anyone anywhere it was too dark.

"Where are you?" Lyserg called back nervously

"Is your name Lyserg?" the voice repeated

"Yes, now show yourself" Lyserg ordered, his anger overriding his unease

A figure stepped out of one of the shadows to Lyserg's left and Lyserg saw that it was boy slightly older than he was with jet black hair which covered his eyes, the boy was much taller than he was wearing a rather large coat that hid most of his figure.

Lyserg could tell immediately that the boy was a shaman and was instantly on the defensive, "Who are you and what do you want?"

"My name is Haru and I am here to relieve you of your crystal pendulum, now hand it over and I shall let you carry on" as Haru said this he walked over and blocked the way Lyserg had been going"

"I am not going to give you anything, now back off before I hurt you" Lyserg told Haru as he got ready to attack.

Haru sighed and said, "Why is it that everyone wants to do things the hard way?" Haru started to walk forward but paused as though remembering something, "Oh yes I was meant to tell you that I work for Hao, does that change your mind?"

The fury that Lyserg had tried to disperse a few minutes ago came rushing back, "You work for him!" without a second thought he brought out the small handgun and aimed at Haru's heart and pulled the trigger summoning his arch angel spirit.

Haru had nowhere to go and caught in the full blast of the attack and was sent flying out of the alley and into the brick wall of one of the warehouses. Haru got up slowly and muttered "just tell him you work for me you won't have any problem" in a voice that curiously mimicked Hao's

Lyserg came out the alley and fired at Haru again, this time Haru was able to dive to his left and the attack barely scathed him. He rolled back onto his feet and was surprised to find that he was panting for breath; the coat was too heavy for him to evade Lyserg's attacks and even simple moves were causing him to use too much energy, he had to get close enough to render Lyserg unconscious and that could be a problem.

"You want my crystal here it is!" Lyserg yelled and he flicked his wrist sending the pendulum at Haru's heart. Haru swayed to his left but he wasn't fast enough and the crystal buried itself in his right shoulder. Haru staggered as the pain from the wound hit him but he stayed on his feet. Lyserg flicked his wrist again to recall the crystal but Haru gripped the wire with his injured arm and gave it a vicious tug that caused Lyserg to come flying towards him. Haru waited a second then sent his elbow hammering into Lyserg's oncoming face and he heard the boy's nose break.

Haru caught Lyserg before he hit the floor and grabbing by the collar of his jacket. He lifted the kid up so that they were face to face. Lyserg was just barely conscious and blood was flowing freely from his nose.

"Next time think about you're doing" Haru told the boy, it was at that moment that he felt something poke against his chest. Haru looked down and saw that Lyserg had managed to pick up his gun and had it aimed at Haru's heart, point blank range.

Haru looked into Lyserg's face and green haired kid gave a weak smile as he pulled the trigger.

The explosion was enormous and Lyserg was sent hurtling through the air until he crashed into some trashcans lined up against a wall. Lyserg staggered onto his feet as he struggled to remain conscious he couldn't see Haru anywhere and he smiled to himself.

Suddenly a brilliant white light exploded from a pile of rubble a few feet in front of Lyserg. Lyserg was instantly blinded and covered his eyes with his hands and fell to his knees. He heard someone walk towards him and stop.

"That hurt" it was Haru's voice, _impossible!_ Lyserg thought, he tried to open his eyes to see who standing in front of him but the bright light still remained; it seemed to be coming from Haru. As Lyserg shielded his eyes again he felt something cannon into his chest and he lost consciousness.

Haru sighed and the light from his amulet faded away, he looked down at it and frowned; he shouldn't have needed to use it. The kid hadn't been that strong, Haru had just been careless. _If you hadn't picked him up he wouldn't have been able to shoot you, but no, you had to get the last word in, if Zhou had seen you you'd never hear the end of it._ Haru shook his head as he thought this, there was nothing he could do about it now except learn from his mistake.

Haru straightened and pulled the crystal from his shoulder and saw a tiny trail of blood start seeping down his coat. He shrugged it off and examined the crystal, apart from it being a spirit medium he could find nothing special about it and he wondered why Hao had wanted it.

Haru heard footsteps running toward the alley and he quickly his himself in the shadows, just as five people appeared in the lamplight at the entrance of the alley. They were all wearing white jackets similar to that which Lyserg had worn and Haru could tell that they were far stronger than Lyserg. He cursed silently, there was no way he would be able to beat them in the condition he was in, especially without a weapon.

"You sure Lyserg is here Macro?" one of the five asked the leader, a tall man with blond hair and silver rimmed glasses.

"Yes I'm sure, I saw the spirit I gave him and he wouldn't use it here unless he was under threat from the demon Hao or one of his lackeys" we need to find him quickly, he can't hold off any of them by himself, now spread out and search" Macro ordered

"But if he was fighting the cursed one…" another figure began to say

"The iron maiden assured me he was not dead yet but we need to find him quickly for she believes he is badly wounded now…" Macro was suddenly cut off

"Over here I found him!"

The X-Laws gathered round the inert figure of Lyserg and one of them ran a hand over his chest, "Two of his ribs are broken and one has pierced a lung"

"we need to get him to the Iron Maiden quickly" Macro told the group. Silently two X-Laws picked up Lyserg and carried him away, the rest following. When they had gone Haru breathed a sigh of relief, _I think it's time to head back_ he told himself and silently he made his way back to the hotel.

* * *

Author: yet another chapter completed, I finished this at 1:30 in the morning so if you find a lot of spelling mistakes or there are a few words missing you know why.

I don't know if I'll be able to do another chapter before I go holiday to the US but I will try.

Anyway I hoped you enjoyed the chapter and I have a favour to ask my readers: Could you please send me the names of any X-Laws you know perhaps with a brief description, the only ones I know of are Jeanne, Macro and Lyserg. So if you could send me the info in a review I would much appreciate it.

To my reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: as always your info is extremely helpful and I thank you for taking the time to look it up I also hate the fact that they changed Hao's name to Zeke, I mean what was the point? It's not like Zeke sounds any better or more evil or anything (perhaps the English dub director couldn't spell Hao? I don't know, anyway) I'm glad you liked the way I did Hao's followers I had a lot of fun working on Bill; he just seemed really easy to work with. I will do a few more chapters with Hao's followers seeing as people seemed to like it.

Shackle: thanks for the idea, but I've already given Haru a sister, I will have her pop up now and again, but I don't see need to give him another sister, however I may give a cousin who is strangely similar to him but that's still in the planning stages.

Novalight: Glad you liked the story; it's always good to get positive feedback it encourages me to update sooner.

devilicous-jo: glad you like my character I tried to kind of make him the opposite of Yoh who is always smiling and likes to laugh I didn't know how good he'd be but he seems to have worked quite well


	15. 14: The Plan

Chapter 14: The Plan

Haru slowly made his way back to the hotel where Hao and the rest of the group were staying, it was late night and the streets were practically deserted. Haru didn't mind this because he never really liked large crowds, however as it was late night it was also much colder and Haru was starting to shiver, _I need to get this coat insulated_ he thought to him self as he made his way along the lamp lit streets. He finally came to the entrance of the hotel, he walked up to the front doors and waited for the sensors to pick him up and open the door but they remained shut.

"What the hell now?" Haru muttered under his breath, he tried to open the doors with his hands but found that they were locked, _Just great, all I need now is for some mangy guard dog to come round the corner,_ almost as soon as Haru thought this he heard a growl come from behind a tree, he turned round and saw a rather vicious looking bull dog make it's towards him.

"I don't have time for this" Haru said to no one in particular. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, the dog started to charge towards him with its mouth open barking furiously as it did so, just before it reached its intended target Haru vanished and the dog unable to stop charged head first into the locked doors.

Haru reappeared a moment later on the other side of the doors panting slightly; it took a lot more energy for him to morph without Zhou. His amulet was glowing with a bright blue light, which slowly died away. Haru looked at it and didn't move until the light had completely vanished.

When the light had disappeared Haru made his way slowly around the dark corridors of the hotel trying to remember where his room was. After several wrong turns and five dead ends he finally managed to find his room. As he closed the door he relaxed and took off his coat to find that his right arm was practically covered in blood that was flowing from the wound in his shoulder.

"Just perfect" Haru grumbled as he went over to the bathroom and rinsed off as much of the blood as possible before tearing up one of the spare sheets for his bed and using it to bandage his arm. He would have to get it looked at later but right now he was just too tired, _not surprising I've probably lost way too much blood_, he thought to himself as he fell onto the bed and went straight to sleep.

* * *

Luca was in his room sitting at a desk on top of which was a whole series of beakers, vials and other fragile scientific equipment; every few minutes he would stir the contents of one vial before pouring it 

into another and then write down some notes in a large blue book, his movements were slow and controlled. A timer started beeping on the edge of the desk and Luca looked up and saw the time; he'd been up all night working on his experiment and he had almost come to the end. Leaning forward he carefully removed a vial that had been under a flame for about five hours, gripping it with a pair of tongs he got up slowly and walked over to the other side of the room where what looked like a large black cauldron was sitting on top of another table; it was full of a dark red liquid that looked quite a lot like blood except blood didn't give off blue smoke. As Luca approached the cauldron he held the vial over the mouth of the cauldron and very delicately started to tilt the vial so that only a drop of liquid would fall into the cauldron.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Distracted by the noise Luca ended up pouring the entire contents of the vial into the cauldron, which promptly exploded and covered him in black smoke, Luca sighed and said, "The doors not locked"

The door opened and Hao came walking in, "What happened to you?" he asked, seeing Luca's face was completely black.

Luca rubbed the soot off his face and replied, "_Someone_ distracted me while I was working on a particularly stressful experiment" Luca shook his head ruefully, "How ironic, I'm always telling you knock instead of teleporting and the one day you choose to listen to me…" Luca gestured to the burnt out corner of the room.

"I always listen to you Luca, you know that" Hao told black robed man conversationally. "I just don't always remember what you say"

Luca chuckled and his voice was actually full of humour, "All right Hao what do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?" Hao replied innocently

"Your never polite to me unless you need my help" Luca told him, "So stop playing games"

"What did you think of my latest follower?" Hao asked quickly changing the topic

Luca blinked as he tried to collect his thoughts, "What? you mean Haru? I thought he was slightly withdraw and rather cynical, other than that he appeared to be a normal teenager, apart from the fact that he was polite"

"Does that mean you liked him?" Hao asked trying to get a straight answer

"I found him agreeable" Luca responded

Hao laughed, "Yes for some reason he seems to respect you more than he does me"

"It might be the fact that I helped him instead of beating him into oblivion, but that is just a thought" Luca wandered over to his desk and started clearing up his equipment

"What were you working on anyway?" Hao asked

"A shamanic drug" Luca replied coolly

"Really? What does it do?" Hao asked not bothering to mask his interest

"I don't know because _someone_ interrupted me" Luca answered with a certain emphasis on the word someone.

"Ah well mistakes happen, I'm sure even you make the odd mistake from time to time; such as incorrectly labelling your pills" Hao said this a little too innocently for Luca's comfort.

"What are you getting at Hao?" the priestly man asked sternly

Hao quickly sketched out the girls plan to drug Haru and then get their revenge, which left Luca slightly speechless, finally he said, "Thank you for telling me Hao, I'll make sure that they don't get what they're after"

"Actually you must make sure that they get what they're after" Hao told Luca. Luca stared at him for a moment but didn't say anything so Hao continued, "Well at least let them think they get what they want"

"What are you plotting Hao?"

"Do you have any of those anti-depressant pills left?" Hao asked conversationally

Luca's eyes narrowed and replied, "Hao I do not use my skills to take advantage of others"

"Don't think of it like that Luca, you said yourself that Haru was withdrawn, we're just going to help him come out of his shell" Hao said persuasively

Luca sighed and pulled out a plastic container of pills, "These are what you're looking for" he said in a defeated tone of voice

"You're just giving them to me?" Hao seemed taken aback at this move

"I've been with you long enough to know that nothing I say can change your mind, but beware Hao if everyone else finds out that you planned this you may find yourself victim to a similar plot"

Hao laughed, "You may be right Luca, but I doubt anyone would try it when they know I can read their mind, now this is what I want you to do…"

* * *

Haru woke up and glanced at the clock on the bedside table; it was 11:00am. Grumbling how there was never enough time to sleep he dragged himself out of bed and made his way over to the shower; he didn't bother turning up the temperature instead allowing the icy cold jets of water wake him and clear his mind. Ten minutes later Haru was out the shower and was dressed in another pair of blue jeans but with a red t-shirt, as he left his room he grabbed his coat which was still slightly stained with blood and went to look for Hao. Haru hadn't taken five steps before he heard a door open behind him and he turned round to see Hao coming out of Luca's room. 

"Hao" Haru called out in a dull monotone, Hao paused and turned to look at Haru, "You know my other followers refer to me as master"

"Good for them" Haru said dismissively, tossing the crystal pendulum at Hao as he spoke, "there, now I expect you to live up to your side of the bargain"

Hao examined the crystal momentarily as though checking whether it was genuine, apparently satisfied he placed the pendulum into his trouser pocket and then placed both hands behind his back when he brought them back round one hand was holding a black memorial tablet the other was holding Haru's Dragon Blade which was in it's scabbard. Hao tossed both them at the time and Haru caught them expertly. As soon as Haru touched the memorial tablet Zhou formed in front of him.

"Master are you safe?" he sounded extremely concerned

"I am fine, don't concern yourself" Haru replied

"Now that you have your weapons back I expect you to start training again, I have no use for a weak shaman" Hao told Haru curtly

Zhou turned and when he saw Hao went instantly into a fighting stance despite the fact that he was dead, "What are you doing here?"

"Relax Zhou, things have changed" Haru told the restless spirit calmly. Turning back to Hao, "Exactly what do you classify as a weak shaman? Because I would have thought that Mia would certainly be countered as one"

"A weak shaman is someone who has no desire for power, someone who will not work to get stronger, in short a weak shaman is someone who does not have determination" Hao replied sombrely

"She doesn't exactly strike me as determined, spoiled maybe…" Haru started to say

"Do you know what she asked of me when I allowed her to join?" Hao cut Haru off. Haru shook his head and Hao continued " she asked me to train her until she could defeat you in battle, you obviously had quite an effect on her"

"I only showed her how weak she was, you realise it will take you at least a year before she comes to par with my power" Haru said

"Actually I believe it will only be a matter of weeks but if you do not consider her a threat then I believe you will get a quite a shock when she challenges you" Hao leaned in closer and whispered to Haru, "If I were you I wouldn't think quite so highly of myself; because with your amount of power Macchi could take you with one hand behind her back"

"You underestimate me" Haru said coldly

"What's wrong? Don't like the idea that you're not so strong anymore?" Hao said with a smug look on his face

"Hao if you want me to fight say so, don't attempt to bait me" Haru said keeping the cold edge to his voice

"Oh, why not?" Hao raised an eyebrow

"Because it won't work

"Really, I seem to remember you had quite a temper when you fought me"

"Is there anything else you want to say? If not I'm leaving" Haru sighed and started to turn away.

"Haru, do you remember my brother Yoh" Hao said genially

Haru paused and turned back to Hao and debated with himself for a second, but it was too good a chance to pass up; "Yoh? Let me see, scrawny little kid, with a face that has an aversion to mirrors (i.e. they crack, PS: to all Hao and Yoh fans this is just joke)" as Haru finished speaking he heard someone try and suppress a snort of laughter and turned round to see Kanna leaning against a wall, with a smirk on her face.

Haru quickly turned back to Hao as he started speaking, "You know, not everyone appreciates your brand of humour, you should be careful about who your jokes relate to" Hao had a dark look on his face and Haru could sense him gathering Furyoku around him and realised that he should back down, but the guy had really pissed him off earlier.

"Who said I was joking?" Haru replied with a straight face. Hao's expression did not change but he conjured a fireball in his right hand and aimed it at Haru, just as he was about to throw it Haru vanished and a gust of wind blew past Kanna who smirked and walked up to Hao who was fuming silently.

"I'll get him for that" Hao muttered

"I'm beginning to like that kid" Kanna said with a chuckle

"What?" Hao said with deadly calm

"He managed to get you angry Hao, he took you down a peg or two, no one else would even dare try but he did; it will be good to have him around he'll stop you becoming to high and mighty about yourself"

"I thought you and Luca already did that" Hao said his anger subsiding

"Yeah but you've started ignoring us" Kanna said as she pulled a cigarette out of nowhere and lit it.

"How is Mia's training going?" Hao said changing the subject, Kanna took a drag of her cigarette before she spoke.

"Fine, she's doing quite well. Are you ever going to tell her about the weights she's carrying?" (Hao had replaced both of Mia's bracelets with led weights and had put a illusion spell on them so that she wouldn't notice, he had also had weights put into her shoes).

"No, if I did she would only complain" Hao answered

"You know I'm surprised you haven't tried anything with her…" Kanna began

"You obviously haven't been watching then, I had the _misfortune_ of walking into her room just as she came out of the shower, suffice to say she didn't care for my…forceful approach"

Kanna stared for a second and then started laughing, "I bet she didn't use those words"

"No I believe her exact words were 'get out of here you filthy pervert' or something along those lines" Hao said with a wry grin

"Well the Boz owe me fifty bucks; I told them you wouldn't get anywhere with her" Kanna said with a grin

"If you are implying that I cannot win her over I will gladly prove you wrong" Hao said with a smile

Kanna's grin vanished and she took on a stern tone, "Don't Hao, that would be cruel even for you. Don't make her fall in love with you if you don't love her"

Hao shrugged and said, "Your right, besides Macchi and Mari would probably get jealous"

Kanna rolled her eyes, "well it seems you climbed up two more pegs again perhaps I should get that punk back here"

Hao's face took on a devious look as Kanna mentioned Haru, "Ah yes I nearly forgot, I'll have to do something about him, it can wait though. Now Kanna what are you doing here?" Hao said with complete innocence

Kanna blinked in surprise and stumbled to come with an excuse, "Oh um… I came to see Luca… have to get an aspirin for my migraine" she tried desperately to think about something other than the plan the Hanagumi and Mia had come with yesterday in case Hao tried to read her thoughts.

"You know you wouldn't have so many headaches if you stopped drinking" Hao said with a smile

"Hmph, the day I stop drinking is the day Bill takes up figure skating" Kanna replied darkly

Hao laughed and said, "I'm only trying to look out for you health, but I'm sure Luca will do that for me goodbye then" and Hao made his usual exit in a pillar of fire

* * *

"Mia must wake up" Mari told her brown haired companion 

"Umm, give me five more minutes" Mia said sleepily, rolling over to the other side of the bed and drawing up the covers more tightly around her.

Mari tapped her foot and put Chuck down, the little doll immediately wandered off to the bathroom and out of view. "Mia must wake up or Mia will be late and Kanna will be mad"

Mia didn't reply; she had already gone back to sleep, at this point Chuck came back from the bathroom with a glass of water, he wandered round to Mia's bed and stopped in front of her face and glanced at Mari who nodded, Chuck then threw the water in Mia's face; the effect was instant.

"AHHH!" Mia screamed and jumped up in bed and immediately started wrestling with the covers before falling out of the bed and onto the floor. Mari giggled and when Mia got up her face was crimson

"That's not funny! You know I don't like the water!" Mia stormed.

"Then Mia should wake up earlier" Mari told her still smiling slightly at Mia's reaction

Mia grumbled slightly but didn't argue and slowly got changed and walked outside with Mari and was instantly met by Macchi who was waiting outside her door.

"Come on! Come on! We're gonna be late!" she told them excitedly and started dragging Mia towards the restaurant.

"What are we gonna be late for?" Mia asked; she still wasn't 100 awake yet

"Operation Snooze, remember? You planned half of it and Haru's already started eating" Macchi said still dragging Mia

"What! Come on what are we waiting for!" Mia started running and ended up dragging both Mari and Macchi before coming to a stop outside the double doors that were the entrance to the restaurant/cafeteria. Pausing a moment to catch her breath and then opened the doors and looked around quickly for Kanna; she was sitting over in a corner of the room at a large table. Mia quickly made her way round and took a seat beside her, Mari and Macchi appeared a second later.

"Your late" Kanna snapped

"Hey don't blame me Mia's the one who wouldn't wake up" Macchi exclaimed and pointed a finger accusingly at Mia.

"Yeah, yeah, I over slept sorry" Mia apologised quickly, "where's Haru? I don't see him anywhere" Mia asked as she scanned the area.

"There" Mari indicated across the room to a table that was slightly obscured by potted plants. Haru was sitting by himself but Mia noticed was talking quickly to what appeared to be a suit of armour floating in front him Mia also saw his sword, which was leaning against a pillar within easy reach of the wielder.

"So that's his spirit huh?" Kanna muttered to herself as she examined Zhou

"Hey he kinda looks like Ashcroft" Macchi said slowly

"Despite the fact his armour is clearly Japanese" Kanna replied

"Yeah well apart from that" Macchi said

"Umm Kanna did you get the stuff from Luca?" Mia asked tentatively

"Yeah it was easy; he just left it lying about, I was kinda surprised but I read the label and it's just what we want" Kanna answered confidently as she showed Mia a half empty container of little red pills

"Has anyone actually put it in Haru's food?" Mia asked again

"Mari did" the blonde girl answered somewhat excitedly

"Where's Peyote? Shouldn't he be here?" Mia asked

"He's over there" Kanna jerked a thumb behind her and Mia saw the guy sitting at a table by himself nursing a bottle of beer, but every now and again he would look up and gaze at Haru before returning to his drink.

"Umm is it just me or is Haru not looking very tired?" Macchi asked in a puzzled tone

The girls glanced up at Haru and sure enough he did not at all tired, if anything he looked as though he had slightly too much coffee; he couldn't seem to sit still, his fingers were drumming on the table and his head kept twitching as he looked from side to side as he talked.

"You know what he reminds of…" Macchi began slowly

"Yeah, he's just like Mari when she used to take those…" Kanna voice died in her throat and she gazed thoughtfully at Haru

"What are you guys talking about?" Mia asked confused

"Well Mari used to get really depressed when Hao first took her in, so he started giving her these pills to help her be a bit more… I guess you could say cheery" Kanna finished lamely

"Yeah and right after she took the pills she'd get just like…" Macchi indicated to Haru who was still acting as if he was on a major sugar high "…then she'd get really relaxed and just sit there smiling to herself, it was kinda creepy" Macchi finished with a shudder.

"Luca stopped Hao from giving them to her because she started having mood swings after they wore off" Kanna remarked

"Give Mari the pills" the blonde haired girl ordered suddenly. Everyone jumped as she spoke; they had completely forgotten she was there. As Kanna handed over the pills Mari examined them closely and read the label a few times before she suddenly ripped it off exposing another label underneath. Mari then wordlessly handed it back to Kanna.

"what the hell, we got the wrong stuff!" Kanna exclaimed

"You mean you got the wrong stuff" Macchi pouted as she said this, "Now we can't carry out operation Snooze"

"Maybe not but I just got a better idea" Mia said quietly a devious grin spreading over face. Everyone turned to look at her and she explained, "right now Haru is basically drunk right?" the Hanagumi considered this and then nodded, "Well then how about we give him a night out and get him really drunk and see what he does, I don't know about you but most of the guys I know do really stupid things when they get drunk"

As Mia explained what she had planned the Hanagumi slowly developed wicked grins that were very similar to Mia's.

"Mari get a camera, I have a feeling we're not going to want to forget this"

"Macchi could you round everyone up? I want everyone to be there"

"Kanna do you know any good bar's?"

* * *

Author: Well that's the end of the chapter hope you liked it. Sorry for the long wait; my parents banned me from the computer until I passed my driving test, but with that done I am free to update, until Friday when I go on holiday then you'll have to wait till September because I won't be anywhere near a computer. 

If you didn't like the chapter don't worry the next one will have a lot more action which will mainly consist of the X-Laws getting beat up repeatedly specifically Macro; I really don't like him, sorry to any Macro fans (if there are any)

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: once again thanks for the info it really helps as I haven't read the manga or even seen the entire anime (I got just up to where Yoh reaches patch village, so a lot of my character impressions are from other peoples fanfics). I may be able to do one more update before Friday but I will have to work fast.

HAO-Addictive: Right well firstly: "L'ho detto era carino" – "I told you he was cute" "Perché lei porta quella bambola?" – "Why are you carrying that doll?" that was just to the Hanagumi know Haru spoke Spanish and could understand what they were saying. I was sure I put translations at the bottom of that chapter but anyway there they are again. As to your other question I was planning on keeping Hao single but that doesn't mean he can't hit on the Hanagumi every now again, if you want a really good Hao romance story read "Ivy, Shaman runaway" a brilliant story, but then again if you really like Hao stories you've probably read it already. Glad you like my story I always like to get positive feedback.

To all other readers please remember to REVIEW, if you've written stories as well I'm sure you'll know that you enjoy writing far more when you know that people are enjoying your stories.


	16. Notice

**Notice**

Author: Well i have made back from the states in one piece but I'm afraid i have some bad news; now that i'm back college has become far more serious and i don't nearly as much timeto update as i did before. so unfortunatly it will be awhile before i update but i am continueing the story. if you want to know when i update than put my story on your alert list.


	17. 15: A Night Out

Author: Major apologies for the late update but the week has been pretty hectic and I've been getting tonnes of homework, I was practically praying for the weekend and when it came it went a little something like this: Author(me) on computer starting to write new chapter, little brothers comes in and demands that I get off computer, 10 seconds later after giving little brother a thorough beating to teach him a lesson I sit back down and start typing again, little brother who is now in a mangled heap on the floor slowly crawls away and informs parents. Parents then come and demand that I get off computer. After a brief argument in which my little brother comes back in and starts shouting, my parents decide to ban both me and my little brother from the computer for the rest of the day. After much grumbling I finally get off the computer and write out the story long hand which takes most of the day as I continually cross things out or make notes so that I can't read what I've written, but finally I feel that I've done as well as I can and start typing it up by this time it is midnight and I am struggling to stay awake so apologies for any bad spelling or missing words, if they are really bad I will edit the chapter at a later date. Anyway enough pointless information on with the new chapter!

* * *

Chapter 15: A Night Out

"Master are you feeling alright" asked Zhou as he looked down on his master suspiciously.

"IfeelabosuletlyfineZhou" Haru said this one big rush, as he said this he was tapping his foot on the floor and twirling a pencil around his fingers so fast that it was a grey blur.

Zhou was worried now he had known Haru for more than ten years and he had never acted like this before, "master I believe you are ill I think you should go lie down"

"No,ItoldyouIfeelperfectlyfineIjustneedtoworkoffsomeenergythat'sall,youcanstayhere" Haru told his spirit companion in another rush of words. When he finished speaking he got out of his chair grabbed his weapon and headed outside.

* * *

"Mari get a camera, I have a feeling that we're not going to want to forget this" 

"Macchi could you round everyone up I want everyone to be there"

"Kanna do you know any good bar's?"

As the Mari and Macchi went about their respective tasks Mia had a quick chat with Kanna and found out that the best bar in town was about ten minutes away right next an arcade.

"Perfect, now we just have to get Haru there" Mia said eagerly as she spun round to the spot that Haru had been occupying moments ago, "Hey where'd he go?"

Kanna glanced over Mia's shoulder and then noticed that the exit door was swinging shut.

"I think he just left" Kanna told Mia, "You better go catch up with him or we'll lose him"

"Right" said Mia as she headed out after Haru

Haru went downstairs and headed for the hotels "Recreational facility" which was practically a built in dojo/gym. He had stumbled onto it last night while he was searching for his room and it seemed like a good place to work off his extra energy.

The room was large and one wall was covered in mirrors, the wall opposite this one was padded for some reason although Haru couldn't understand why. Along the other two walls were sets of weights and fitness machines (treadmills, rowing machines, step master etc.). The middle of the room was completely empty and the floor was covered in crash mats so Haru assumed that it was meant for sparring, Haru stepped into the middle of the room and took off his coat and then started stretching.

When he finished he straightened up, the stretching should have calmed him down but he still felt extremely energetic, he headed over to the weights and was about to pick one up…

"What are you doing?" it was Mia; she had finally tracked him down and seemed a little out of breath.

Haru head jerked up as he heard the voice but as he saw who it was immediately lost interest and went back to the weights, selecting a particularly large one and lifting it easily over his head, he frowned and replaced the weight he was using and selected a even larger one.

"Hello, I am talking to you" Mia spoke again

Haru sighed; he suddenly felt a lot less energetic, he turned round to face her, "What do you want?" he asked

"I did ask what you were doing" Mia reminded him

"It's called exercise you should try it some time" Haru replied, he put the weight down and rubbed his temples he was starting to feel light headed and was having problems thinking properly.

"But that's boring, come on all of us are going out for the day and your coming with us" Mia told Haru firmly.

Haru leaned against a wall and took a deep breath, he was really having problems concentrating now and his mind was slowly processing Mia's words, "Why do you want me to come? I thought you hated me" Haru replied

Mia was slightly taken back by this response but inwardly she was smiling; she could see that the drug was taking affect, "I never said I hated you, besides when was the last time you had any fun?" she said persuasively

Haru was silent for a while and Mia was surprised to hear him laugh, "What's so funny?" she asked

"The last time I had any fun was back in the junkyard when I gave you a royal beating" Haru told Mia and chuckled when he saw her blush.

Mia face was scarlet but she quickly worked the situation to her advantage, "Well that was ages ago, come on you need to get out more"

Haru shrugged his shoulders and replied "Why not" the light-headed feeling he was experiencing was making him, for lack of a better word, happy. He grabbed his coat and followed Mia outside.

They quickly made their made their way to the entrance of the hotel to find the lobby completely empty except for a sleeping hotel employee behind the front desk.

"Huh? Where is everybody I thought they'd be here by now" Mia said almost to herself, "I wonder if they've already left?"

"Why don't you ask him" Haru gestured at the sleeping man behind the front desk who was starting to drool, "He's obviously the observant type" Haru said his voice heavy with sarcasm but somewhat lighter than usual. 

Mia stared at him for a few seconds; he really was acting different, not drunk but just… what had Macchi said? Oh yeah cheery.

"Hello anybody home?" Haru asked as he waved a hand in front of her face. Mia started, "Huh? What the? How did you get over here!" Mia exclaimed in surprise; a second ago he had been halfway across the room leaning against the front desk.

Haru's mouth formed into a small smile, "Like this" he said and at the same time he grabbed her hand and they both vanished in a gust of wind and reappeared back at the front desk.

Mia heart was beating fit to burst and she could feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, she'd never experienced something like that before; it was like they had run a mile in a few seconds but she wasn't at all tired.

"What was that?" she asked him breathlessly, she looked up at him waiting for an answer but she only saw him grin slightly, the rest of his face was obscured by his hair.

Haru suddenly brought his fist down on the front desk, startling Mia and waking up the sleeping employee who jerked up and started talking frantically

"I wasn't sleeping I was just resting my eyes, you can't prove anything…" the guy stopped talking when he heard Mia and Haru laughing at him, "Hey what's going on?" he asked suspiciously.

Haru was the first one to calm down and said, "Sorry to distract you from your busy schedule but we were wondering if anyone else had left the hotel?"

The employee scowled he didn't like being mocked by some punk who didn't seem to know the meaning of the word 'haircut' and was about to tell them to get lost but changed his mind suddenly, "Why yes actually I saw a group of people leave about 10 minutes ago"

"Aw man we missed them, come on I know where they're going" Mia said as she dragged Haru out of the hotel and down the road"

"Good riddance" the guy muttered before he went back to sleep.

* * *

"Come on your going!" Macchi told Peyote and she placed her hands on her hips as the guy didn't budge, "Did you hear me? Come on!" 

"Who do you think your talking to?" Peyote replied in a dangerously calm voice; he was in a real bad mood ever since Kanna had had a little "chat" with him and while he might take that from Kanna there was no way he would take it from this sugar high squirt, "You are in no position to make me go anywhere and if you don't leave me alone right now you're going to find yourself in the pool with a new pair of cement shoes" this was a long speech for Peyote who normally answered questions in as few words as possible but he was in a bad mood, he got a feeling of satisfaction when he saw Macchi back off, although Hao would never let him carry out his threat there was no reason for Macchi to know that, especially since he was known to be completely ruthless in battle and injure both friend and foe.

"Having trouble with something Macchi?" it was Kanna; she had overheard the two arguing and had decided to help Macchi out.

"Yeah Peyote's being a real jerk he won't move" Macchi informed the older girl

Kanna raised an eyebrow at this, "Really? And here I was thinking Peyote liked a free beer…"

Peyote's head jerked up at this; Macchi hadn't mentioned anything about a free drink, "Where exactly are we going?"

Kanna smirked as she heard this, "Macchi go and round up some of the others, Peyote will meet you downstairs.

Macchi gave a mock salute and dashed off to find the rest of group, after a few minutes of wandering around she hears the dreaded music of the Boz and headed in their direction; they may be complete idiots but when it comes to having a good time or when you just wanted to see something crazy there was no one better than Zen and Ryo.

As Macchi got nearer the source of the noise she suddenly hears another voice

"Will you two ever shut up!" this was followed by an explosion which caused one of the walls to be vaporised, literally, and Macchi saw Zen and Ryo crumpled on the floor with anime spirals in their eyes, amazingly none of their equipment was broken. As Macchi looked away from the two crumpled 'musicians' she saw a rather angry looking Turbine who was standing about 10 feet away, his left arm was raised and was still glowing slightly from the force of his attack.

Turbine was normally a pretty calm guy but having to listen the Boz for more than 15 minutes will pretty much make anyone pissed off.

After making sure that Turbine had calmed down sufficiently so that he wouldn't try and blow her up when she started talking Macchi approached Turbine and told him that everyone was going down to a bar and then to make fun of Haru. Turbine was silent for a few minutes and then Macchi added that their might be free drinks, Turbine nodded his head at this and went to the hotel lobby to wait for everyone else.

Macchi then turned her attention to the Boz and after making they weren't dead started kicking them viciously in the ribs until they woke up. When they finally regained consciousness she told them that they were going out to get drunk and that they could pull any pranks they wanted on Haru. The Boz were delighted to hear this because Hao had banned them from playing any pranks ever since a very unfortunate event which consisted of: a scheming Zen and Ryo, a shotgun loaded with rubber bullets, a rubber chicken, a pile of white feathers, some oil, a lighter, a flash camera, an Extremely pissed off Hao, and a little later a medium/well done cooked Boz.

After Macchi had finished talking to the Boz convincing everyone else to come was a piece of cake as they were all bored out of their minds since their nothing for them to do at the hotel, the only person she hadn't managed to convince was Luca who was in the middle of some strange experiment and had threatened to give her a lecture on 'the danger of micro organisms' if she didn't leave him alone, since Luca's lectures were held in greater fear than the Boz's music Macchi decided to back off.

When Macchi finally made it back to the hotel lobby she saw that just everyone was waiting there, but she couldn't see Haru or Mia anywhere.

"Macchi have you Mia or Haru?" Kanna asked her red haired companion. Macchi shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Nope I ain't seen them anywhere" Macchi replied.

Kanna cursed silently, this was turning into one big headache, "I knew I should have gone with her, they've probably gotten lost"

"Kanna, Mia and Haru have already left" said Opacho as he approached Kanna from behind.

"Huh? How do you know that?" Kanna asked

Opacho gestured to the front desk where the same hotel employee from earlier was still sitting, only know he was wide and had a very scared look on his face, which was probably caused by the fact that Bill was towering over the guy and was doing his best to act intimidating, "Opacho asked that man" the child said simply

Kanna glanced over and noticed the guy Opacho was talking about, she also saw Bill, "And he just told you straight away did he?" Kanna asked slowly

"No he insulted Opacho so then Opacho had Bill ask and also told Bill to give him a lesson in manners" Opacho said with slight smile

Kanna laughed at this, she had seen Bill angry once and it was not a pretty sight and Bill looked really angry right now, Kanna almost felt sorry for the guy

Almost

* * *

"Come on it's this way" Mia told Haru as she proceeded to drag him around the city, Haru actually knew that they were lost because he had been through this part of the city the other night and knew that it went to the harbour, ordinarily he would said something to Mia along with a few choice insults, but right now he didn't really care, besides it was amusing watching the expression on her face every time they went around the corner and failed to find the bar. 

"I know it's around here somewhere" Mia muttered to herself as they went down yet another street and groaned as she saw that it was completely deserted; it looked as though they had found their way into the industrial sector of the city.

"You don't think we might be lost do you?" Haru asked in an annoying smug voice

"We're not lost!" Mia told him angrily, _how is it_ she thought to herself _that even when he's drugged he still manages to annoy me?_

"Of course not how stupid of me, so then you do know where we are?" Haru continued in the same smug tone.  
Mia remained silent but continued walking until they came to a crossroad.  
"Perhaps if we went left" Haru suggested, Mia immediately went right and Haru ended up staring at her back for a few seconds until he snapped out of it and went to catch up.  
When they came to the next cross roads Haru again suggested that they go left and once again Mia completely ignored him and went in the opposite direction, she continued to do this for about 15 minutes until finally she came to a dead end.  
"So are we done sight seeing?" Haru asked her amiably as he caught up with her, because if we are I sincerely hope you know the way out of here because now I'm lost as well"  
Mia was getting angry now the whole purpose of this scheme had been to humiliate Haru but he had somehow reversed it so that she was the one who was humiliated. 

"well, well, well what have we got here boys? Looks like a couple of lost tourists"

Haru and Mia turned round and saw that the way out of the alley was now blocked by a group of about seven thugs each of whom looked as though they had just come out of a punk rock concert.

"What do you want?" Mia asked knowing full well what the answer would be

"Well girl you and your boyfriend are trespassing on our turf so either you give $100 or we beat the crap out of you right boys?" as the leader finished speaking several members of the group pulled out various blunt instruments which included metal pipes, chains and a few knuckle dusters.

At the 'boyfriend' remark both Mia and Haru turned and looked at each other and then back at the gang.

"Him?" Mia said in disbelief, which quickly turned to anger

"Her?" Haru asked with a scowl, his newfound good humour quickly evaporating

"If you haven't got any money then we'll have to do this the hard way, personally I prefer it that way, all right lets get them" he told the group and the thugs rushed towards Haru and Mia.

Haru seeing the thugs come rushing towards just stood his ground and waited for them to come to him, although he didn't have his sword he had studied martial arts for 8 years and Zhou had been a great teacher, as the thugs got closer Haru shifted his stance and bent his legs slightly in order to lower his centre of gravity. Just before the first thug got in range Haru saw Mia rush past him. As she reached the thug she flipped onto her hands and did a type of cartwheel so that her feet connected with guys skull, as he went down he dropped the metal pipe he had been about to use and Mia quickly picked it up and then went to work on the rest of the gang.

As Haru watched Mia fighting he had to admit that she had improved since he had fought her; her reflexes seemed sharper since she was able to evade every attack easily and her attacks seemed more calculated then when he beaten, she no longer attacking at random but was waiting for an opening and then striking home viscously.

As Haru was watching he noticed that the first guy Mia had knocked down was getting slowly back to their feet, Haru saw the guy scowl at Mia who had just knocked three of the thugs off their feet, the guy then pulled out a length of chain and started to swing it around his head letting it pick up speed, Haru then noticed that the chain had a heavy weight attached at the end so that it resembled a manriki-gusari (look up on google if you don't know what this is). As the thug started to close in Mia Haru realized that she wouldn't see him until it was too late.

Mia was extremely pissed off, not only had she managed to get lost with what she considered to be one of the most annoying people on earth but these creeps had actually thought he was her boyfriend, as if! She had to teach them a lesson. So before Haru had gotten a move in she had charged the thugs; first knocking out the first one by flipping onto her hands and launching her feet at his head and the guy dropped like a stone, Mia paused for a moment to pick up a metal pipe and then went to take on the rest of the goons using a combination acrobatics, martial arts and plain old aggression.

Mia suddenly heard a noise from behind her and spun round to see a heavy chain moving in a collision course with her face, she didn't have any time to react and just shut eyes waiting for the impact…

"Hey let go!"

Mia opened her eyes and saw Haru standing next to her his arm wrapped around the chain about an inch from her head the thug was vainly trying to pull the chain back. Haru turned and saw Mia staring at him.

"What? Didn't think I'd let you have all the fun did you?" he said with a wry grin

Mia came out of her daze and replied, "not much left for you to have fun with"

"Look behind you" Haru told her

Mia turned round and saw that there were now at least twenty thugs standing in the alleyway, they had heard the fight and come to check it out and seemed pretty angry when they saw most of her friend lying on the ground unconscious.

"Bet you I can take out more than you" Mia said grinning at Haru

"Your on" as Haru said this he a felt tug on his arm and realised that the chain was still wrapped around it he looked at the thug who was yanking on the chain and he got a sudden sense of déjà vu, he grinned and gave the chain a sharp pull which caused the thug to come flying toward him and Haru landed a kick on the guy's oncoming face.

Haru looked up from his little one on one battle and saw that Mia had already taken down 6 of the thugs, _damn I'm going to have to work fast_ he thought to himself. He took off his coat and launched himself at the goons avoiding blows easily and landing a few good ones of his own. As Haru was fighting he realised that he was starting to win their little contest; this was mainly because Mia was just trying to hit as many guys as she could reach, while she was taking down a lot of them they would just shake their heads and then get back up. Haru on the other had trained by a samurai and the samurai style of fighting was designed to kill your opponent in as few moves as possible, while Haru wasn't actually going as far as that he was making sure that his opponents stayed down.

10 minutes later all thugs were either running or were unconscious, Haru and Mia leaned against opposite walls each trying to catch their breath they had both worked up quite a sweat.

Haru wiped his wet hair out of his eyes and looked at Mia, "Now that was fun" he panted and smiled at her.

Mai looked at him and was about to reply but instead she just stared him; it was the first time she had gotten a good look at his face, normally his hair would cover his eyes and pretty much mask the top half of his face, but looking at him now he almost seemed to be a different person, with his hair pushed back she got a look at his eyes for the time and saw that they were a rich ice blue colour, she also noticed he looked really cute when he smiled.

"Your gonna pay for that!", the leader of the thugs had managed to get back to his feet and was shaking his fist at them.

"How exactly are we going to 'pay for it'? We just took down all your friends" Haru told the gang leader.

"Yeah and I just beat the crap out of you" Mia added

"You little brat, all right lets see what you think about this" the gang leader then pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and aimed it at Mia, "Not so smug now are you"

Haru and Mia remained silent both of them staring at the gang leader abruptly Haru grinned, "You can't shoot us" he said in an amused tone

"Oh yeah who's gonna stop me, you?" the thug directed his remark to Mia who also smiling now and this unnerved the thug a bit.

"Nope, not us, him" Mia indicated behind the thug and the guy noticed that there was now a big shadow covering him, slowly he turned round and came face to midriff with what seemed like a brick wall, the guy craned his head to look straight up and took in the blue vest, the spiked shoulder pads and the red helmet, the guy and took an involuntarily step back.

"Hi there" Bill said in an emotionless tone, his hand reached out and covered the gang leaders gun and started to crush it, the thug gave a cry of surprise and was only just able to extract his hand before his fingers were broken.

Bill finished crushing the gun with one hand and dropped the scrap metal onto the floor at the thugs feet.

"You weren't planning on shooting those two were you?" a dangerous tone had entered Bills voice now and the Thug backed up a few more steps and he noticed that there were several more people behind the oversized football player and he noticed that they were all giving him a very nasty expression.

"No sir, not me" the thug responded in a cowering voice retreating a few steps more, but then Bill picked him up by his head and brought to eye level, "I don't like liars" he told the thug and then threw him against a wall, the guy hit the wall and then slid down it into a dumpster and the lid closed ontop of him.

"you guys ok?" it was Kanna she had appeared from behind Bill who was now leaning on the lid of the dumpster.

"we're fine but why did you guys leave without us?" Mia asked

"We didn't, that guy back at the hotel lied to you, apparently he didn't like your attitude" Kanna said this while staring at Haru, who just shrugged

"And I didn't like his work ethics so big deal, is he still there?" Haru asked

"actually he had this strange urge to leave as soon as he finished talking to Bill over there, he seems quite protective of you" Kanna informed them

Now it was Bills turn to shrug, "Hey, someone's gotta look out for the newbies"

"Hey where's everyone else?" Mia asked suddenly

"Oh we split up, we were all meant to look for you but I'm guessing most of them have already gotten to the bar, Macchi's promised nearly all of them a free drink, but she doesn't have any money so I don't know how she's gonna pay for them, incidentally what are you two doing all the way out here? This is miles away from where I told you to go"

"Mia thought it would be good to get some sight seeing in before we went isn't that right Mia?" Haru said with a cheerful grin

Mia mumbled something under her breath that was inaudible to others, "why are we just standing around here? Lets get to the bar and meet up with everyone else, come on lets go!"

* * *

Author: sorry for the late update again even though I finished it on the weekend my computer has been having problems connecting to the internet so I finally saved a copy and put it onto a friends computer and uploaded it that way. 

Ok this was longer then I intended it to be so I decided to cut it off here, so sorry no Macro bashing this time if you were waiting for it, but definitely in the next chapter. I realise that I have been neglecting Yoh and company so I will try and bring them back in the next chapter as well.

Also I remind you that I do not have as much free time now so at most you'll be looking at one update per week, sorry but I just have too much work to do.

To my Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: glad you liked the last chapter, I will strive to make the make next just as good if not better, I'm enjoying Torn by Thorns you've managed to give it a few interesting plot twists.

devilicous-jo: glad you enjoyed the last chapter, I was stuck for a while trying to come up with side effects but then I saw my sister after she'd decided to have my dads coffee and it just seemed obvious from there.

Shackle: I totally agree school isn't a place to learn it's just hell with fluorescent lighting (although my cousin says the same thing about his office job) also about the extra sister comment, you'll be pleased to know that I've come up with another OC who at the beginning will be very strong but I'm not sure when they'll make their appearance

HAO-Addictive: as I have said before I no longer have a lot of time to update my story, but unless I say otherwise I am still working on it, don't worry come the holidays I'll have a lot more time to work on it, keep sending in those positive reviews though I like to know that people are enjoying my story

Zeke yoh asakura: It's good to hear from new reviewers thanks for the positive reviews, it really keeps me inspired and makes me want to work on the story.

Sweetlips: finally another new reviewer excellent, I'm glad that more people are taking the time to tell me what they think, it makes me feel that I'm doing something right (for once) anyway I hope you keep reviewing, I don't mind if they're anonymous.

CyberWarrior: and another new reviewer, finally I'm getting through to my readers, as to your request I think that you can tell by this chapter that I am intending some MiaXHaru romance so you don't have anything to worry about, I hope you keep reviewing!

To everyone else who has yet to do so Please REVIEW!


	18. 16: What Happened?

Chapter 16: What Happened?

BEEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

SMASH!

Haru's fist came down on the alarm clock cracking the casing and causing the ear-piecing wake up call to turn into a dull whine. Slowly Haru rolled over on his bed and opened one blood shot eye and looked around, it seemed that he was in his room although it could be have any other room in the hotel because they all looked the same. Looking over at the bedside clock Haru couldn't make out the time because he had inadvertently crushed the annoying machine, which had just given him the most colossal headache of his life.

_What the hell happened? _He thought to himself as he struggled out of bed, he got up and saw that he was only wearing a very battered pair of jeans. He tried to stand up but couldn't seem to keep his balance at the moment so he sat down on the bed with his head in his hands and waited for the headache to fade, he then tried to remember what he had been doing.

He thought back to last night but couldn't seem to come up anything, he went back further to around midday but his memory was still fogged, getting worried now he thought back to the morning and was relieved that he could remember that:

_He had completed Hao's task and had given him the strange crystal and Hao had given him back his weapon and …Zhou!_

"Zhou?" Haru enquired quickly as the thought struck him, he spoke a little too loudly and this caused his headache to come rushing back. Immediately the faithful spirit appeared in front of is master and bowed.

"What do require master?" Zhou asked as he straightened up and then looked down puzzled as he saw Haru cradling his head in hands, "Master are you alright?"

"Don't talk so loudly" Haru winced as he spoke, he'd never had a headache like this before

"My apologies master is this better?" Zhou enquired with a whisper

"Yes, thank you, Zhou what happened yesterday evening? I can't remember" Haru told his faithful companion.

"I do not know master" Zhou replied still keeping his voice barely above a whisper.

"Don't tell me you can't remember either" Haru said a despairing tone voice

"No master I don't know because you ordered me to remain here" Zhou looked uncertainly at his master unused to seeing this type of behaviour from Haru

"I did? Are you sure?" even as Haru asked this he cursed himself for saying it; Zhou was…had been, a man of honour and would never lie about anything, the mere suggestion that he was lying would put him in a sulking mood for days.

Sure enough Zhou face frowned and he replied in a voice that could best be judged as indignant, "I would not lie to you master"

"I know Zhou, I'm not feeling well at moment, don't take it personally. Would please tell me what happened before I ordered you to stay here? Oh and you can stop whispering now"

"You were eating and explaining how you had come to join the one you called Hao, you were acting very strangely and when I remarked upon this you said that you were fine and that I should remain behind while you left to train"

"What do you mean 'acting strangely'?" Haru queried

Zhou frowned for a moment before replying, "Master do you remember when you visited you cousins in France?"

Haru buried his face in his hands, "Please tell me I didn't act like Jenny"

Zhou's face twitched for a moment into a small smile and he hesitated before he replied, this moment of hesitation made Haru look up and Zhou was extremely amused by the uncertain look on his face.

"Zhou please tell me that I did not act like my hormone controlled, boy crazy cousin" Haru said slowly

Again Zhou hesitated in replying and a small smile worked its way onto his scarred face, Haru noticed this and just as Zhou was about to reply he said sharply

"On your Honour Zhou tell me truthfully"

Zhou's grin immediately vanished and was replaced by a small sigh, "No master you didn't, I was referring to your younger cousin John, however I cannot speak for events after that" again a small grin worked it's way onto Zhou's face

Haru visibly relaxed, _ok one less thing to worry about, so I was just acting a little hyperactive, that's not too bad,_ he thought to himself _wait a minute!_ "Zhou what do you mean by 'events after that'?"

Zhou didn't answer, instead he indicated to the mirror in the bathroom. Haru didn't like the look on his face but went over to the mirror none the less.

Haru took a deep breath and looked in the mirror; all in all it wasn't as bad as it could have been. What looked back at him was Haru but there had been a few changes; his hair was no longer pitch black but had bleached so that it was now blond. As he pushed his hair back he also saw that someone had shaved his eyebrows off and applied mascara to his face in a childish manner, there was also something that looked suspiciously like smudged lipstick on both of his cheeks. Haru slowly wiped off the lipstick off with one finger and held it under his nose; it smelled faintly of sugar, the lipstick on the other cheek smelt of roses; so there had been two girls. Haru sighed as he washed his face, although he didn't show it he was extremely pissed off, it normally took quite a lot to get him angry, like when Hao had stolen his parents amulet; it was the only thing he had to remember his parents by. His father had made it for his mother on their wedding anniversary, originally it had been gold heart which had been split in two and put on separate chains with half for Haru's father and the other for Haru's mother. After they had been killed it was only thing Zahra had been able to obtain from their bodies. When Haru had put the two halves on himself they had somehow become fused together and the shape of the amulet had changed from a heart to the yin-yang symbol. Since that day Haru had found the amulet to be a powerful spirit medium, somehow the amulet was able to store furyoku, which Haru could then call upon in battle or any other emergency. Thinking of his parents Haru's left hand unconsciously went to grab the amulet, which wasn't there…

Haru looked down quickly and sure enough his amulet was missing, the silver chain still hung around his neck but the amulet itself had gone. Rage instantly flooded through Haru but quickly faded when his headache returned with full force. He grasped the edge of the sink and just stood still for a few seconds. He had to think, he couldn't just go charging off. He'd done that last time and had ended up with a royal beating, no he would have to think, and that meant he had to find out what happened last night. As he thought this his headache proceeded to run rampant inside his skull and he was forced to sit down for a few minutes until it faded.

He could find out what happened later, firstly he had to get rid of his headache

As Haru left his room he proceeded to wander down the halls toward the kitchen to get some coffee. As he made his way down the hallway he heard two voices coming towards him and they were precisely the two people he did not want meet when he already had a headache.

"Man that was great party!" Ryo told his fellow musician

"Yeah I know, I got know idea how Macchi managed to pay for all those drinks I thought she was broke" Zen replied

"Hey don't complain, Hao even let us pull some pranks, I mean I thought he'd never get over that rubber chicken thing" Ryo immediately started laughing as he remember what Hao had looked like at the end of, Zen however winced as he remembered what Hao had done to them after their little prank.

"Yeah but I don't understand why they wouldn't let me use my first ideas they would have been so much cooler!" Zen said in frustration

Ryo laughed and shook his head at this, "Bro let me put it this way, having a flamethrower in a bar would not end well, trust me"

At this point the Boz came round the corner and almost walked into Haru, the Boz took in the bleached hair and the shaved eyebrows as well as the bloodshot eyes and they smirked slightly.

"Hey Haru how ya doing?" Ryo said in a louder voice than usual, Haru in response winced and put one hand on his temple.

"Could you please be quiet" Haru moaned as he rubbed his temples

"Ya you don't look to good" Zen told him in a loud voice; picking up on Ryo's idea.

"Well what do you expect? The kids got a hangover, he did have a drinking contest with Kanna" Ryo commented with a chuckle

"Hey that reminds me you owe me twenty bucks" Zen told Ryo

"No I don't, you bet that he wouldn't be conscious when he lost, he just kinda fell over it doesn't count" Ryo protested

Haru left the two 'musicians' to their argument and slowly made his way to the kitchen only to find Bill and ZanChin already there, both of them looked liked they had seen better days.

"Remind me never to do that again" ZanChin groaned from seat

"What he said" Bill replied and he poured the last of the coffee into his cup and drank it.

"Please tell me that's not the last of coffee" Haru moaned as he slowly made his way to the table.

Both of them looked at Haru and took in the bleached hair, "What happened to you?" Bill asked

"I don't know, is there any more coffee?" Haru said quietly

"Afraid not" Bill told him, "We sent Opacho off for more but I don't know when he'll get back.

"Perhaps Luca could help you he has a wide range of medicine" ZanChin offered.

* * *

Luca was in his room sitting at a desk on top of which was a whole series of beakers, vials and other fragile scientific equipment; every few minutes he would stir the contents of one vial before pouring it into another and then write down some notes in a large blue book, his movements were slow and controlled. A timer started beeping on the edge of the desk and Luca looked up and saw the time; he'd been up all night working on his experiment and he had almost come to the end. Leaning forward he carefully removed a vial that had been under a flame for about five hours, gripping it with a pair of tongs he got up slowly and walked over to the other side of the room where what looked like a large black cauldron was sitting on top of another table; it was full of a dark red liquid that looked quite a lot like blood except blood didn't give off blue smoke. As Luca approached the cauldron he held the vial over the mouth of the cauldron and very delicately started to tilt the vial so that only a drop of liquid would fall into the cauldron.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Distracted by the noise Luca ended up pouring the entire contents of the vial into the cauldron which promptly exploded and covered him in black smoke, Luca sighed and raised his eyes to the ceiling, "What did I do to deserve this?" and then added in a louder voice "The doors not locked"

Haru opened the door and stepped inside, "Did I interrupt something?"

"Yes as a matter of fact you did, you are now the second person to interrupt my experiment in under 48 hours and at both times I have been on the verge of completing the experiment, but no matter I am sure that you have much more pressing problems than my life's work" Luca said his voice heavy with sarcasm

Haru winced slightly as Luca raised his voice and said, "calm down, did you ever think of using one of those 'do not disturb signs' they do have them for a reason you know or you could move to another room that way people wouldn't be able to bother you"

Luca stared at him for a second, those ideas had not occurred to him although now he thought about it seemed to be a completely reasonable thing to do, he yawned and rubbed his eyes he was going to have to start getting some more sleep it had been nearly three days since he had last slept, that was probably why he wasn't thinking straight.

Luca then looked more closely at Haru and noticed that there was something different about him but he couldn't put his finger on it, "Did you cut your hair?" he asked

Haru shot him a glare that looked as if it could kill, "That's not funny" he said in a dead tone of voice.

Luca was taken back slightly and then suddenly realised what was different about Haru and it dawned on him what happened, "Ah let me guess you decided to go out with the rest of the group last night and got drunk and someone decided to have some amusement at your expense"

Haru walked over and sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands, "all I remember is waking up in my room this morning with the biggest headache of my life, I was told you had some medicine?"

Luca sighed and went over to his shelves, normally he would have given Haru a lecture about how people these days were always drinking too much and how it affected them later in life but he remembered that he was probably responsible for what happened to Haru last night and he felt guilty.

"Here you are" Luca told Haru as he set down some pills and a glass of water, "take those, they should take affect almost instantly"

Haru did as he was told and as soon as he swallowed the pills he felt a pervading coolness which started in his stomach and slowly made it's way up to his head where it just seemed to wipe the headache away, he sighed and leaned back in the chair, "Finally, that was the worst headache I have ever had"

"You should be more careful about how much you drink, going out with the Hanagumi was exactly the smartest idea" Luca told him semi sternly

Haru frowned, "did you say the Hanagumi? That's not right, why would I go anywhere with them?" Haru seemed to be talking to himself but he noticed something flicker across Luca's face for a second as he spoke, Haru wasn't sure but it looked like guilt.

"Luca, exactly what happened last night?" Haru asked the older man in an inquisitive voice

"I'm afraid I don't know, I spent last night here working on my experiment" again something that same expression flickered across Luca's face when he finished talking.

"You know something don't you Luca" It was statement not a question and Luca did not respond

Finally Luca said "I'm afraid I can't tell you" he sighed and went over to the bench where all of his scientific apparatus was standing.

"Can't or won't?" Haru replied

Luca seemed to shrink slightly when he heard this, if Hao had not forbidden him from revealing what he had done he would have told him in an instant, Luca was not proud of what he had done but he could not go against Hao, unless…

"As I have told you Haru I was not there so I do not know what occurred, however I do believe that Macchi and Mari were taking photos, they may have left them in their rooms I suppose you could go and check…" Luca stopped speaking as he turned round to face Haru and frowned in puzzlement when he saw that he was no longer there, he then notice his door was slowly closing on it's automatic arm and he smiled to himself.

* * *

"Aww man why does it have to be so hot out here?" Horo moaned to the others as they continued through the desert. They had been travelling for over a week and they were still not sure where Patch village was, getting side tracked by the Lily 5 every 10 minutes didn't exactly help their sense of direction.

"Would you stop moaning!" Ren shouted at Horo, "We're in the desert what did you think it was going to be like.. Hey Get Off Me!" Ren yelled as Horo started to hang onto him

"Carry me" Horo pleaded as he continued to hang on to the increasing angry Chinese shaman, "I can't walk anymore, OWW! Ren had just delivered a bone-jarring fist to Horo's face and he was now lying crumpled on the ground.

"Asakura do you have any idea where we're going?" Ren asked as he saw Yoh walking off in the distance.

"What a foolish thing to say! Of course master Yoh knows where he is going" Ryu said in outrage to Ren's question. However Yoh stopped walking and turned back to face them and rubbed the back of his head.

"Uh actually I have no idea where we are" He admitted with an embarrassed smile both Ren and Ryu sweat dropped.

"Man there has got to be some civilisation somewhere, I can't face camping in the desert again" Horo wailed

"But I thought you liked camping?" Choco asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah but we've run out food, I can't live without at least 20 candy bars, 30, Popsicles, 50 burgers and 30 gallons of cola"

"Hey your making it sound worse than it is" Yoh told the ice shaman, "I mean we're not really out of food, Faust could probably make us something again"

"I am not eating another cactus" Horo told the other shaman darkly

"I do not know what you are complaining about, in Deutschland my cooking was considered to be of the highest quality, Eliza adored cooking" Faust told the sulking shaman

"Yeah and look at what happened to her" Horo mumbled under his breath

Luckily for Horo Faust didn't hear this as he was too busy staring lovingly into the eyes of his wife Eliza.

Seriously man calm down I thought you were supposed to be 'cool' ha get it? Choco laughed as he beamed at the rest of the group but was quickly struck down as both Ren and Horo slammed a fist on top of his head.

"What did I tell you about trying to make jokes?" Ren hissed through his teeth.

"Um guys this isn't exactly helping us right now" Yoh told the group

"Master Yoh is right we need to concentrate on finding Patch village" Ryu replied.

The group sat down in a circle and started thinking, two hours later they were still there.

"Arrgh! This isn't working!" Horo said in frustration as he jumped up and grabbed his head.

"On the contrary Ainu I have just come up with a plan which is fool proof" Ren told Horo. The group all turned and stared at him waiting for explanation. Ren turned to Horo.

"Which way do you think Patch village is?" Ren asked Horo

"Huh? Why are you asking me?" Horo asked confused

"Just answer the question" Ren replied

"Um ok let me think" Horo spun round in a circle and then stopped pointed, "It's that way!" he exclaimed.

"Ok then we will go this way" and Ren started walking in the opposite direction.

"What but that's not what I said!" Horo shouted

"My point exactly" Ren responded, "As I said my plan is fool proof, now are the rest of you pathetic excuses for shaman coming?"

Before Ren had taken two more steps a bullet shot into the ground right in front of his foot, he looked around quickly for the attacker and saw Macchi and Mari approaching.

"Hiya!" Macchi said in her usual hyped up voice, "Guess who?"

"What are you doing here?" Ren growled, the gang had faced the Hanagumi before and had gotten their butts kicked, Ren was still quite sore about the whole thing

"Master Hao say Mari fight so Mari is here to fight" the blonde haired shaman replied

"Uh could you run that by me again" Yoh said in a confused voice

"Basically Hao thinks you guys are having it to easy" Macchi told the group, "So he wants us to teach you a lesson"

"Hey weren't there three of you last time?" Horo asked

Macchi frowned as she heard this, "Kanna couldn't make she had too much too drink, anyway we shouldn't have too much trouble with you guys" as she said this Macchi pulled out Jack and Mari put chuck on the ground. The two dolls immediately came to life and started walking towards the SK gang.

"Attack" the two girls said in unison.

* * *

Haru had found Macchi's room first and although it had been locked the room wasn't airtight so he had no problem getting in. He quickly examined her room, the first thing he noticed was his wallet lying on her dressing table, Haru picked it up and knew just from the weight of it that nearly all the money was gone, he looked inside anywhere and saw a few white moths come flying out. Needless to say this did not improve his mood. As he went over the room he found half a pack of photos in the draw of the bedside table.

They were innocent enough to start with, mainly pictures of the group sitting at various tables drinking beers or in Opacho case cartons of milk. There were a few photos which showed Turbine whipping Bill at pool. Looking at the pictures it appeared everyone had had quite a lot to drink; there was one photo which showed Kana surrounded by a mountain of empty beer bottles and after that a particularly amusing photo of the Boz getting kicked out of the bar by Kana while they had their musical equipment; obviously they had tried to perform one of their 'songs' and had been justly punished.

Then as Haru got halfway through the pack he noticed that the photos seemed to consist mainly of Hao with either Macchi or Mari lying ontop of him and looking as if they were practicing CPR among other things…

Haru rolled his eyes at this and flicked through those picture quickly_ those girls need a different hobby,_ he thought to himself, he was beginning to notice a pattern here, except for the group photos neither he nor Mia seemed to appear anywhere in the photo's.

Finally at the end of the pack in the last 5 photos Haru found what he was looking for, the photos showed what appeared to be Haru, unconscious and in various stages of a makeover as Haru went over the pictures his expression got darker and darker, then he heard someone chuckle, this was not a good thing because in Haru's current state of mind although he would not kill anybody he had no qualms whatsoever about crippling someone for life.

Haru turned round and too his shock saw Zhou leaning over his shoulder his frame shaking from the force of the laughs.

"I always wondered why you were camera shy master" the old warrior spirit said in between chuckles

"Zhou..." Haru said dangerously

"Calm down master, surely your not going to get embarrassed over this childish prank?"

"I'm not embarrassed, I'm angry" Haru replied darkly

"You are also embarrassed master, I've known you long to tell how you're feeling, do not allow this childish act to get to you, merely ignore it or better yet laugh at it, isn't there a saying which states, 'learning to laugh at yourself is a sign of maturity'

Upon hearing these words Haru took a deep breath and seemed to calm down somewhat. "I suppose your right old friend, I shouldn't let this get to me"

Zhou nodded approvingly.

"However no one is perfect…", Zhou started shaking his head "…and I think I have just remembered a better saying, ' don't get mad, get even' and that is exactly what I intend to do but first I need to check something" Haru placed the photos back and went over to another dresser and pulled out a purse.

"Master what are you doing?" Zhou asked in a puzzled tone

"Testing a theory" Haru replied he started searching the purse and found some red lipstick, he took off the cap and held it under his nose_, sugar, I thought as much, then the other one was probably Mari, when I find those two… _Haru allowed this train of thought to drift away as heard someone coming down the hall. He quickly replaced the purse and photos and slamming the drawers shut as he did so and quickly left the room. As Haru left one of the drawers below the one he had slammed slowly slid open in and inside you could see a brown envelope marked "Blackmail Photo's"

Once outside the room Haru turned round a corner and almost walked over Opacho who had been coming the opposite way.

"Haru should watch where he is going" the child remarked

"Opacho where are Mari and Macchi?" Haru replied

"Why does Haru wish to know?" Opacho asked nervously

"I think you know why Opacho and I also think that you know I am not in the mood for games so where are they" Haru repeated his question

* * *

"Come on guys we can take'em!" Horo shouted as he ran and attacked Macchi pumpkin headed doll.

"Yeah right in your dreams" Macchi replied, "Get him Jack!" the Pumpkin headed doll grew in size and pulled out two razor knives and proceeded to hack and slash at Horo and Rio and Yoh, while Chuck proceeded to shoot holes through Faust, Choco and Ren. The fight went on for about 20 minutes and although Yoh and the gang were managing to hold their own they were quickly running out of furyoku.

"Come on Mari Let's finish'em" Macchi told the Blonde haired doll master.

"Jack, Trick or Treat Attack" Macchi told the pumpkin headed doll

"Billy the Kid" Mari informed chuck.

The two dolls immediately ran forward; Jack produced two large bombs from behind his back and threw them at the SK gang creating a wall of smoke, while Chuck proceeded to fire bullets at an inhumanly fast rate.

When the smoke cleared the SK gang were still standing but they had all lost spirit control and were out of furyoku.

"Damn it" Ren said and proceeded to curse in Chinese.

"Aw man I can't believe this" Horo moaned

"My beloved Eliza" Faust said mournfully

"Yoh you really need to get stronger, that what Hao wants us to show you, otherwise you won't make it through the third round at patch village, oh yeah he also said that you gotta hurry up or you might not make it to Patch village in time, let's go Mari…Mari?" Macchi quickly looked round for her companion and saw that she had already started to leave.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Macchi shouted and sprinted along to catch up with her friend, the SK gang all sweat dropped.

"Mari, wait up slow down!" Macchi panted as she finally caught up with her friend, they were now walking through a stone canyon which was filled with various ledges and caves.

"Why are you in such a bad mood?" Macchi asked

"Mari had too much to drink" Mari replied

"Why didn't you do and see Luca then" Macchi said

Before Mari had a chance to reply there was a sudden explosion and both Mari and Macchi were blown off their feet and sent flying a good twenty meters before falling back to earth.

"Ouch" Macchi said as she struggled to get back up, "Who did that?"

"X-laws" Mari replied simply gesturing to one of the ledges where several of the X-laws were seen to be standing. The group consisted of Macro, Meene, Lyserg and Venstar. Venstar was currently in a crouching position and had his huge bazooka type weapon perched on his shoulder which was aimed directly at the two Hanagumi members.

"The followers of Hao shall face judgement" Macro proclaimed.

"Not these guys again" Macchi moaned silently, "When are you losers gonna realise you can't beat Hao?"

"Enough, Hao shall be wiped from the face of the earth, however first we must deal with his subordinates, you misguided shaman have one chance to redeem yourselves, join us or face the Iron Maidens judgement" Macro stated

"Um gee let met think about it" Macchi said in an sarcastic manner, she rested her chin on her hand and the said, "Nope I don't think so right Mari?"

"Mari will never betray Master Hao" Mari confirmed

"Then you shall come with us and face the Iron Maidens judgement" Macro

"Yeah like we're gonna go anywhere with you" Macchi replied

"Then you leave us no choice" Meene spoke for the first time, she then looked at Macro who nodded and said, "X-Laws attack!"

"Come and get it!" Macchi shouted as she and Mari went to attack.

5 minutes later both Macchi and Mari were lying face down in the sand.

"I can't feel my legs" Macchi groaned and then she passed out.

Macro moved away from the other X-Laws and strode over to the two fallen Hanagumi members, "Now you shall face judgement" he told them.

"You'll have to wait until I'm finished with them" a cold voice answered.

Macro spun round and saw Haru marching towards him complete with blond hair, grey trench coat and sheathed sword.

"Who are you?" Macro eyed Haru suspiciously, before Haru had a chance to reply, realisation dawned in Lyserg's eyes and he shouted, "Macro that's the one who attacked me a few days ago! He works for Hao!"

"So you are another of the devils followers" Macro said

"Call me what you want I don't care, but I have business with these two so I can't let you take them" Haru gestured over to the two unconscious girls.

"If you are a follower of Hao, then you shall soon be joining them", Macro informed Haru, "This is your one chance for redemption, forsake Hao and join us and you shall find salvation"

"So I either join you or die? Sorry but Hao has a better heath policy" Haru replied as he finished speaking he drew a metal katana from the sheath at his side and held it in an offensive position

Macro's eyes narrowed when he saw Haru getting ready to attack, "You believe that you are capable of taking on all of us by your self?" Macro gestured to the other X-Laws behind him who now had their weapons ready.

"No just you, Shadow Strike!" Haru slashed the air multiple times with his weapon, sending out arcs of black light which flew straight over Macro's head and into the canyon wall over the X-Laws heads. This in turn created a huge rockslide which buried the X-Laws behind Macro with boulders and debris.

Macro looked slightly shocked at this event and turned to face Haru.

"Now it's just you and me" Haru informed Macro as he removed his coat which fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

"I shall defeat you, I am an angel of the Iron Maiden, behold Michael!" Macro raised his gun and fired, sending his arch angle spirit Michael towards Haru, who just smirked.

"I'm going to enjoy this" Haru said as he saw the Michael zooming towards him, Haru made no move to evade the spirit and there was a huge explosion, when the smoke cleared Haru was nowhere to be seen.

Macro sighed and lowered his weapon, "One less evil in the world" he said to himself.

"Your aims a little off centre" Haru remarked casually behind him.

Marco whipped round to see Haru leaning against a boulder, arms folded and legs crossed.

"How did you…" Macro began

"I told you, your aims a off centre, your arm pulls to the left when you fire so it wasn't that difficult to evade" Haru informed the X-Law

"We'll see about that, Michael!" Macro raised his gun and fired again. Haru responded by flipping over the boulder he had been leaning against and using it as a shield to take the full brunt of the attack. Once again there was another explosion and the boulder was blown to smithereens, once again Haru was nowhere to be seen.

The wind suddenly picked up and Macro realised there was someone behind him, he threw himself to his right as Haru's katana sliced through the space he had been occupying a second ago.

"Your aim was better this time, you actually hit the target, but then you were aiming at a boulder" Haru grinned as he said this and leapt to attack again, "Shadow Strike!" the attack his Macro full on and sent him flying into the canyon wall.

Macro staggered back onto his feet and stared at Haru, "Impossible, I am one of the Iron Maidens…" He was cut off by Haru

"Yeah, yeah, you're a holy angel I get the idea, does anyone ever tell you that you talk too much? Your weakness is your spirit medium; firearms are only good at long range and in case you haven't noticed I tend to attack at close range so that medium is no good against me" Haru informed Macro.

In response to this Macro drew himself up and summoned Michael infront of him.

"Now you're getting the idea" Haru said in an amused tone and he jumped to attack the giant arch angle spirit.

"It was at this point that Macchi regained consciousness, she shook her head and struggled into a sitting position, "Uh what happened, Mari where are you ok?" Macchi quickly looked round for her companion and that was when she saw the fight between Haru and Macro; Haru was going one on one with the arch angle and was easily avoiding it's attacks although he wasn't attacking himself it was all to clear he was playing with Macro, "No way" Macchi breathed, then she added in a louder voice, "Get him Haru!"

Macro turned his head at this point and noticed Macchi for the first time since he started fighting,_ at this rate I won't be able to get any of them to the Iron Maiden, _he thought to himself _but I shall not let this fight be in vain_, "Michael!" Macro bellowed and gestured towards Macchi and Mari. The angle spirit immediately stopped attacking Haru and rushed towards the Hanagumi members. Haru stared at it for a second before he realised what it was doing.

"Crap" he muttered and he sprinted over to stop the giant spirit

Macchi saw Michael heading straight for her and Mari and realised that they weren't going to get out of the way in time, "uh oh not good" as she tried to defend herself against the oncoming attack, however it never reached her, just as it Michael was in striking distance Haru intercepted it plunging his katana straight through the giant spirit causing Macro to loose spirit control.

Haru turned round slowly until he face Macro, He had a dark expression on his face, "Big mistake" he told Macro, "No you've lost spirit you can't defend yourself" Haru charged Macro kneeing him in the stomach and then delivering an elbow to the back of his head as he doubled over Haru did all this in less time than it took to blink, which was why Macchi was wondering what the hell had happened to Macro; who had been standing up one second and lying almost unconscious on the ground the next.

Haru bent down and picked up Macro and shoved him against a wall and then held his katana to Macro's throat.

"Consider this a warning" Haru said in a dangerous voice, "I don't like you, so if I see you again preaching about how superior you are I shall personally make sure you take the rest of your meals through a straw" Haru dropped Macro who slumped to the ground, "Oh yeah, give this back to Lyserg" Haru fished out the dowsing crystal from his pocket and threw at Macro who at that point lost conscious.

Haru turned away from Macro and headed towards Macchi and Mari who was just starting to regain consciousness. Haru still had a rather dark look on his face and Macchi noticed this.

"Hey Haru great job" she said nervously

Haru kept coming and if anything his expression got darker.

Macchi gulped, "Umm Mari I think we might be in trouble" the blonde haired shaman nodded in response.

Haru finally reached them, "Get up" he told them with a scowl. They complied and got to their feet. "Now you have exactly 30 seconds to explain why you did this" Haru gestured to his blond hair.

"Um what makes you think it was us" Macchi asked somewhat timidly; Haru could be really scary at times.

"One word Macchi; photo's" Haru replied

"Oh crap" Macchi said

"Mari is in trouble" Mari answered

"Did you think it would be funny?" Haru said in a menacing voice.

The two girls shook their heads and to their to their surprise Haru laughed.

"Really? I thought it was hilarious especially when you had him dancing on the tables" Haru continued to laugh as the two Hanagumi members stared at him in shock.

"Is Haru still drunk?" Mari asked in amazement

"Oh no Haru is very much sober and at this point is busy thinking of ways in which he will avenge himself" as Haru said this he seemed to flicker for a moment as though he was on a badly tuned television then Haru disappeared to be replaced by non other than Hao Asakura himself.

"Master Hao!" both girls said in shock.

"You couldn't tell? My illusion must have better than I thought" Hao said with an amused expression on his face.

"So you were the one who beat up Macro?" Macchi asked in a confused voice.

"Yes and I must say I enjoyed it immeasurably, it was refreshing rather like a morning walk, so then how is my brother doing?" Hao raised an eyebrow as he said this

"Well they put up a bit of fight but we still beat them pretty easily and they're miles away from where you wanted them to be" Macchi informed her leader.

"Hmm it's good thing I always have a plan B then" Hao said more to himself than the girls.

"Master Mari has a question" the doll master stated

"What is it Mari?" Hao asked genially

"Where is Mia? Mari could not find her this morning"

"Ah, I have sent Mari on a special mission, unfortunately you will not see her again until my brother reaches Patch village and the same goes for Haru, so you will not have to worry about him for awhile" Hao told them

"Master is Haru really that strong?" Macchi asked in an inquisitive tone

"My, my you girls are full of questions today, well lets just say that he has a lot of potential and leave it at that" Haru answered

Mari was about to ask another question but Hao silenced her with a kiss, "That's enough questions for today you two. We are leaving the hotel today so we need to go." Hao turned to leave

"Hey don't I get a kiss?" Macchi asked

Hao turned to face her and raised an eyebrow, "If you want someone to kiss why don't you and go look for Haru, it seems that you had no problems last night"

Macchi looked down as her face turned crimson, she didn't reply.

"You know Macchi I was most distraught when Opacho showed me some of you photo's I thought I was the only man for you, oh well" Hao let out a long theatrical sigh, that was when Macchi looked up and saw the amused expression on his face and realised that he was teasing her. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a look of indignation.

Hao laughed and then teleported them all back to the hotel.

* * *

Author: I'm not too sure about this chapter it seems to me that everyone is a bit OOC. This is meant to be a sort of transition chapter explaining how things got from one point to another. Anyway I hope you like it, in the next few chapters we'll see a lot more Yoh and the rest of the gang.

To My Reviewer(s)

Mikauzoran: Glad you liked the last chapter. I know what you mean by being buried by work, I have hardly any free time nowadays. The last chapter marked the start of a Haru x Mia relationship although I think it will take quite a few chapters before it is properly established hope you like how I did Hao at the end of this chapter. On another note that getitfido site is finally working and I managed to see the last few episodes of Shaman King at last. I didn't really like the way they portrayed Hao at the end; i.e. as a raving megalomaniac, is he like that in the manga? I hope not it kind of ruined my first impression of him.

Zeke yoh asakura: good to hear from you I always enjoy hearing from my readers, thanks for the review.

HAO-Addictive: I don't know about perfect but I enjoyed the writing the last chapter and I guess that's the main thing, I had a look at you "Impossible Is Nothing" story, it is really well written, you've Hao's character down quite well and Shido is an interesting character I can't wait for you next update!

Sweetlips: I agree with you about the anon. reviewer thing you get way more reviews that way. Glad you liked my story, I think it would great if you made your own story, I only started writing this for something to do but I have really grown to enjoy it. If you tell me when you post your story I'll be sure to review it for you, I know how depressing it is to start a story and think that no one likes it.

ciabatta: it's always good to get a new reviewer, glad your enjoying the story I hope you review in the future.

To the rest of my readers please REVIEW!


	19. 17: Old Acquaintances

Chapter 17: Old Acquaintances

"I hate the desert" muttered Haru, he had been walking for about four hours through the hot scorching sands and had nearly no idea where he was going. The temperature was well above 100 degrees and Haru's clothes were drenched in sweat yet he refused to take off his weighted training coat and instead had taken off his shirt.

"Zhou remind me to hurt Hao when we get to patch village" Haru told his faithful spirit darkly as he remembered why he was out here.

Flashback

_After having spent the better part of an hour arguing and debating with Opacho the kid had finally told him where to find Macchi and Mari, after he discovered their whereabouts he went to visit Luca quickly before heading out of the hotel._

_As Haru was making his way out of the city he got the feeling that he was being followed, so he started walking more quickly while at the same time staying alert for a sign of whoever or whatever was following him._

"_Where are you going in such a hurry?" Haru stopped but he didn't turn round; he knew that voice._

"_Go to hell Hao" he said in a dull monotone as he started to walk away_

"_Been there, done that" Hao replied cheerfully, Hao teleported in front of Haru forcing him to stop, Hao looked at Haru's bleached hair and shaved eyebrows, "I see that the girls had some fun last night, so where are you going?" _

"_Where do you think? I am going to inform your little fan girls exactly how I feel about their prank and then well, lets just say the punishment will fit the crime…" Haru let his voice tail off and a slight grin made it's way onto his features as he thought about how exactly he was going to pay Macchi and Mari back._

"_As interesting as that sounds, I'm afraid I need you to do something else" Hao informed the now blond haired shaman. Haru's smile vanished as he looked at Hao._

"_It will have to wait" Haru said darkly "I have to retrieve something first"_

"_You wouldn't by any chance be talking about your golden trinket would you?" Hao said this a little too innocently_

"_Where is it Hao?" Haru asked in a low voice._

"_Your quite attached to it aren't you? Why is it so special to you?" Hao responded in an inquisitive voice_

"_It's all I have left of my parents, now where is it?" Haru repeated his question._

"_Ah, emotional value, I should have guessed, you know you really should take better care of it if it means that much to you" Hao paused for a moment as he realised that Haru was staring at him with a rather ugly look in his eyes. "Don't worry, you'll get it back after you finish my task" _

"_Hao I've already said that I am willing to work for you, you don't need to blackmail me" Haru said this slowly and deliberately._

"_That is where our opinions differ, you see normally I would believe you, however for this task I would like some insurance. You see my brother Yoh is not progressing as fast as I would hope. He has managed to obtain information about Patch village but does not know how to use it. Unfortunately it seems I need someone to guide him to Patch village otherwise he will arrive there too late for the third round." _

"_Let me guess you want me to play tour guide" Haru replied bitterly_

_Hao smiled at this, "Very astute, you are the one they are most likely to listen too, if one of my other followers were to try to guide them, they would be… resistant to say the least, however as they have already met you it shouldn't be a problem. However you task is more than just to 'play tour guide' as you so adequately put it. The X-Laws are up to something and until I know what it is you shall also assume the role of bodyguard for my brother"_

"_That's quite a lot of responsibility, you sure you want to trust me with it?" Haru said in an effort to persuade Hao._

"_That is why I have taken the precaution of having some insurance, besides you will get help in due course; I have someone with Anna at this very moment in time so you will not be alone once you complete the first part of your task" _

"_For some reason your words fail to inspire me with confidence" Haru said sourly, then a thought struck him," you don't think the fact that I have spent nearly a month in your company will cause Yoh and his friends to doubt me in any way?" Haru told Hao sarcastically_

_Hao frowned slightly, "Obviously I do not wish for you to tell them that you are working for me"_

"_So exactly how do I explain where I've been all this time?" Haru asked_

"_Oh I'm sure you'll think of something, oh and you'll need this" Hao tossed Haru a scroll of paper which turned out to be a map which revealed the exact location of patch village, however something else caught Haru's eye; there were two different coloured markers on the map and both of them were moving. Both markers were labelled one said "Asakura" and the other was "Chou Senji Ryakketsu" (A/N I have no idea if I spelled this correctly)._

"_What is the Chou Senji Ryakketsu?" Haru asked in a slightly puzzled tone._

_Hao smiled, "That is another part of your task. Anna, my brothers' fiancé is currently travelling with a book that was written over 1000 years ago; it contains information on various shamanic skills and techniques that I perfected, you need to ensure that my brother receives it before he reaches Patch village, now I suggest you start moving" _

End Flashback

Hao had then teleported Haru into the middle of the desert and he had spent the rest of the day looking for Yoh and the others. So far he had yet to find so much as a footprint. Haru paused and took out the map that Hao had given him. The reason why it was taking him so long to find Yoh and the others was because they were moving as well, so Haru had to move faster to catch up and according to the map he was still an hour behind, he sighed and rolled up the map and was about to continue when he noticed a figure approaching ahead of him, as the figure got closer Haru saw that it was a man who appeared to be in his thirties but Haru couldn't be sure because he was wearing a mask that resembled a bird.

"Hi there, remember me?"

* * *

"Lousy, no good, rotten Hao, I bet he knew this was going to happen" Mia mumbled under her breath as she staggered under the weight of several various suitcases and bags. 

Hao had given her her first mission today, Mia had been reluctant at first because after hanging around Hao and his followers and seeing how strong they were she had started to doubt her own abilities. However Hao had quickly assured her that she was strong enough for the task and that afterwards she would be stronger than ever before. Mia had been sceptical at first; she was old enough to know that nothing in life came easy and even though she came from a pretty well off family she had grown up with three older brothers, and as all younger siblings will know older brothers or sisters have a habit of picking on their younger siblings and generally making their lives miserable. Mia had had to fight and argue for anything she wanted because her brothers would almost always try and prevent her from getting anything she desired.

However Mia gave as good as she got and once she had turned 15 and got Kira as her guardian spirit they had decided to leave her alone because only one of the brothers was a shaman as well and had not yet picked a guardian spirit. Also Mia's mother had gotten sick at around this time and there were more important things for them to consider.

Hao saw that Mia was sceptical about what he was telling her but did not try to change her mind and instead changed tact, telling her that she had nothing to lose and if it did work then she would be strong enough to beat Haru, that had worked and Mia had agreed to do what Hao wanted, which consisted of helping Anna find someone called Yoh so that she could give him the 'Chou Senji Ryakketsu' whatever that was, Hao had said that she was best suited to do this because she had met Anna and the others before. When Mia pointed out that Haru had also met them and probably new them better than her Hao had just said that Haru was busy but that she would get some help later on.

Mia had found Anna and the others easy enough; they had gotten lost trying to find Santa Fey but had ended up in Yanta Fey instead. Mia had found them arguing over whose fault it was that they were lost, or to be more precise Anna telling everyone that it was their fault and not hers. Mia had unwisely chosen this moment to reintroduce herself and point out that Anna was the one with a map in her hand. This explains why Mia was now trudging along behind the group and struggling to balance the various suitcases that had been piled ontop of her.

They had stopped for the moment at a bus stop, which would eventually provide a bus that would lead them out of town, but for the moment they just had to wait.

"Pailong why don't you help her out" Mia heard someone say, almost immediately Mia felt some of the suitcases being lifted off of her by the deceased martial artist. Now that Mia was able to see where she was going she juggled around the various bags she was still carrying and turned to Lee Pailong and thanked him.

"Don't mention it miss I was glad to help" the bodyguard replied politely before he fell back behind Jun, who came up to speak to Mia.

"How are you holding up?" Jun asked with an inquisitive smile

"Uh fine now, the hardest part was balancing them" Mia replied as she looked at the various suitcases with loathing.

"I was actually surprised that you could carry all of them, some of them were the same size as you" Jun remarked.

"Your not the only one who was surprised I thought my back was going to give out" Mia responded, she was about to say something else but was stopped when someone poked her leg, she looked down and saw what appeared to be a 2foot high doll with blond hair and a relatively big head, Mia was almost instantly reminded of Opacho.

"Hey, your names Manta right?" Mia asked, she had been introduced to the little kid quickly but hadn't really had a chance to talk with anyone.

"Yeah that's right, uh listen I think I should warn you not to get on Anna's bad side" Manta indicated to the icy Ikato who was at the head of the group, "Anna's not exactly known for her charm…"

"I heard that shorty, you have clean up duty for the next two weeks" Anna remarked coldly over her shoulder.

"No…" Manta moaned as anime tears came streaming out of his eyes.

"And that's another week for moaning about it" Anna responded

"Hey don't pick on him, it's not his fault you don't know how to be nice" Mia told the female Ikato.

Anna stopped in her tracks and turned on Mia very slowly, everyone else retreated out of the way and several strangers turned around and started whistling while walking away very quickly. Anna started to walk up to Mia b but just before she got close enough to reply the bus pulled up and a guy who looked a lot like the truck driver Billy leaned out.

"Alright this is the number 33 bus going out of town you kids getting on or what?"

Anna glared coldly at the driver for a moment and then confirmed that they were getting on, the driver then got out of the bus to help the load their suitcases onto the bus and after a few minutes they were on their way out of town.

Mia chose a seat next to Jun and was soon joined by Manta who still looked slightly crestfallen that he had extra clean up duty but didn't dwell on it and instead turned to Mia.

"Were you actually listening to what I said about not getting on Anna's bad side?" he asked, "because if you were then you have a really strange way of making friends"

"Hey I was trying to help you" Mia protested

"I know you meant well but you really shouldn't argue with Anna, she is use to being in charge and doesn't react well to people arguing with her or criticising her" Jun remarked.

"Well who died and put her in charge?" Mia asked somewhat testily; all she had done was try to help the little guy out.

Manta shook his head at her question, "You don't get it do you? No one puts Anna in charge she just is in charge; it's been like that ever since I've met her. Don't get the wrong idea though; Anna's not completely heartless. She's actually worried right now because she needs to find Yoh before he gets into the third round of the tournament.

"Whose Yoh?" Mia asked, she remembered Hao mentioning him but she didn't know who he was.

"He's Anna's fiancé" Jun answered, "Anna is determined that Yoh will win the tournament and become Shaman King so she has set herself the task of training him"

"Yeah, even if it kills him" Manta added with a slight grin, Manta then proceeded to tell Mia about Anna's training regime and how about how it was actually a good thing she had come along because Yoh was too lazy to do anything vaguely related to training by himself.

Mia listened to all this in silence; she had thought training with Kanna and Peyote had been bad, but Manta made Anna sound about ten times worse, Mia silently hoped that Hao had not been talking about Anna when he said that she would be a lot stronger after she was done with her task.

This conversation eventually died out and everyone was silent for a while each of them thinking different thoughts.

'_I wonder how Yoh and the others are doing?'_

'_I hope Ren is alright'_

'_Yoh had better still be training'_

'_I wonder how moms doing?' _as Mia thought this she saw Manta's laptop for the first time, "Hey Manta is that yours?"

Manta followed Mia's gaze to the laptop at his feet, "Uh yeah why?"

"Can it go online?" Mia asked

"Yeah it's got one of the fastest modem speeds on the market, why do you ask?" Manta said slowly not getting her point.

"Do you mind if I use it?" Mia asked eagerly; she hadn't been in contact with her family for a while now and wanted to check up on how they were doing.

She quickly logged onto the machine and activated the web browser before accessing her email accountant. It was flooded with messages from her father mainly; it looked like he'd tried to contact her everyday, there were also a few from her brothers as well. Mia read the most recent letter from her father and her face grew serious as she read how things were going; her mother had been diagnosed with a type of cancer and her family were struggling to pay for the treatment, which wasn't exactly cheap. That was one of the reasons why Mia had decided to enter the Shaman tournament; if she won she would be able to heal her mother.

As Mia continued to read she let out a breath of relief, her mothers condition had stabilized for the moment but her father didn't know how long she would stay that way, Mia hoped that her mother would be able to hold out for a while longer, until the shaman tournament finished there was nothing she could do.

Mia then proceeded to go through the emails sent from her brothers, they had all sent her at least one, mostly they repeated much of what was said in her fathers letters but being her brothers they also threw in the occasional odd insult as well. Reading through their letters Mia realised that she actually missed her brothers.

First there was Simon, the oldest out of the three, he was probably the main cause of most of Mia's misery when she had been home. He had done everything from feeding her homework to their pet dog Pepper, to somehow moving her bed outside when she was still sleeping in it so that she woke up in the front garden when the sprinklers turned on.

Next was Richard, the middle brother, while he may not have picked on Mia as often as Simon, whenever he had decided to pull something it was usually one of the most embarrassing experiences of her life. Like the time when she had most of her friends round for a party and Richard had thought that the house should be redecorated with poster sized pictures from the family photo album which consisted mostly of Mia's baby pictures (A/N: I don't need to explain to you why this is embarrassing do I?).

Lastly there was Alex, the youngest of the three he was, strangely, the most mature, although that's not saying much. He was also more cunning than the other two in that when he pulled a prank or inconvenienced Mia in some way he made sure that he wouldn't get in trouble for it. Like the time when he had convinced Mia to play poker with him; he had managed to relieve Mia of nearly every penny she owned and Mia hadn't been able to anything about it because her parents were dead against gambling. Although to be fair Alex had given half of the money back to her, although that was after she had taught Pepper what "sick'em" meant.

Alex was also the one that constantly teased her; normally he would make fun of her choice of music but mainly he found a way to poke fun at her height because he knew that those topics would always get her angry the last one especially; Mia may have been slightly on small side for her age but she hated it when people still treated her like a child because of it, the ironic thing was whenever someone did comment on her height or treat her like she was still a child she would instantly start acting like one and this amused her brothers to no end.

Alex was also the other shaman of the family and usually the one who warned the other two whenever Kira had been about so that she wasn't able to spy on them when they were plotting.

"Are you alright?"

Mia head jerked up; she had gotten lost in her own thoughts and had forgotten about the others. She turned to see Jun who staring at her with what looked like concern in her eyes.

"hmm what did you say" Mia questioned Jun

"I asked whether you were all right, you seemed rather depressed" the older girl commented.

"I'm fine, I was just going through some of the letters my family sent me, I haven't seen them for a while and just reading about how they're doing, I kinda wish I was back home with them" Mia lapsed into silence.

"Ah, your homesick" Jun remarked

"I guess so" Mia gave a weak laugh and then continued, "I never thought that I'd miss my brothers; I mean they made my life a living hell, I never had a chance to be by myself and I was always fighting with them but…" Mia's voice trailed off

"Sounds like they really cared about you" Jun commented, at Mia's incredulous expression Jun explained, "take it from some one who knows, brothers have a hard time expressing their feelings. If they didn't care about you at all they would just ignore you, but they don't, even though I haven't met them I believe that their actions are just a way of showing that they care for you."

Mia still had the same incredulous look on her face when she spoke, "No offence but that's the worst excuse I've ever heard, there is no way my brothers made me live through hell for most of my life just because they cared about me"

Jun sighed, "Have it your way then, they're your evil older brothers who are out to get you, happy?"

"Very" Mia replied with a slight smile.

* * *

"So I can't convince you?" Mikihisa said with a tone of disappointment 

"Not unless you can tell me who ordered my parents death" Haru replied

"Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you, you should not let yourself be fuelled by revenge" Miki said sadly, "but have you considered that it might have been Hao who killed your parents? You could be working with your parents murderer"

"I'm not that naïve any more Miki, I'm not the same boy you found in the woods 10 years ago, I've grown up. I checked the dates, when my parents were killed Hao was in England trying to recruit someone called Liam Diethyl, besides Hao wouldn't hire humans to do his dirty work for him that much I know" Haru replied emotionlessly

"I see, in that case I'm afraid I will have to…" Miki halted his speech as Haru raised his hand for silence.

"Just because I'm working for Hao doesn't mean I won't try to help you, I don't have anything against your son or his friends and I will help them in whatever way I can. I will also agree to your other request. I owe you that much at least." Haru finished speaking and stared levelly at Mikihisa.

Miki thought about this for a moment; what Haru was virtually offering was to spy on Hao, any extra information he could get would be vital. Miki nodded his head in agreement, "very well I suppose that will have to do" Miki then started to walk away but Haru called him back.

"Miki I have one favour to ask; don't tell Yoh or his friends that I've sided with Hao" Haru said

Although Haru couldn't see it Miki raised an eyebrow, "you don't think they have the right to know that you've to chosen to work for one of the most evil shaman ever to walk the planet?"

"Evil is a perspective Miki, I have already had this argument with you, besides they will find out in eventually but for the moment it would make everything a lot easier if you didn't tell them."

"Very well I will not tell them, but that doesn't mean they won't be able to figure it out by themselves" Miki replied.

* * *

Author: firstly major apologies for not updating but I have had a lot to do, what with college homework/coursework and also having to apply to university and as I'm applying to some US university's as well as UK ones I have twice as much to do as I normally would, but anyway excuses over I hope you liked the chapter; I was trying to develop Mia a bit so that she more likeable and that seemed to take up most of the chapter so sorry for their not being any action I will try to fit some in next chapter but you may have to wait a while for that though… 

To my Reviewer(s)

I only got two reviews for my last chapter, was it that bad? Or have you all just forgotten about me? Suppose that would be my fault then really. If I'm doing something wrong here you gotta tell me I'm not physic, besides that's what reviews are for; constructive criticism so if there is anything you think is really wrong with the story or if there is something you didn't like tell me! Put it an anonymous review if you want to, I do accept them.

Mikauzoran: well I have finally updated! I hope it was worth the wait. Please tell me what you think, as you are one of my most loyal reviewers your responses are greatly appreciated. Glad you liked the last chapter (that seems like ages ago doesn't it?) I really wasn't too sure about it but your review put my fears to rest. Anyway your story is going quite well, that last chapter really shed a lot of light on things as I said in my review. I hope you don't get too snowed under with work because patience is not one of my virtues and I cannot wait for the next chapter!

Zeke Yoh Asakura: thank you for the review my friend I always appreciate whenever my readers take the time to tell me what they think. I agree about the Hao fight with Macro it wasn't really all that action packed but I wasn't really at my best that day however I will strive to add some better fight scenes into the next chapter. My story is basically a rewrite of the Shaman King story but with a few twists so Hao and Yoh will not be facing each other for a while yet I'm afraid, but I will get there in the end.

To all my other readers please REVIEW!


	20. 18: Old Acquaintances Part 2

Chapter 18:

"Master are you sure about this?" Zhou asked as Miki walked away and just seemed to vanish into the heat of dessert.

"No Zhou I'm not. However I owe Miki, and I always pay my debts, this is the least I can do for him. Besides if I hadn't come up with a compromise he would have tried to prevent us from reaching Yoh so then we would have had to fight him. That is something I would rather avoid, especially after last time" Haru replied as he kept his eyes fixed on the spot where Miki had disappeared.

Zhou nodded gravely, although he had not been there at the time he knew that Miki was the one who had found Haru in the forest and contacted Zahra after their parents death and had therefore indirectly saved Haru's life, for Haru had refused to move from the spot where he had seen his mother die.

Zhou also remembered the last time they had fought Miki; it had been right before the preliminary battles of the shaman tournament. Haru and Zhou were in Asia at the time, seeking out different shaman techniques and anything else that could help them in the coming tournament, they had also been waiting for their invitation to said tournament. When the invitation had come Silva accompanied by Miki delivered it. Haru had accepted at once and was about to leave when Silva had told him that he needed to be tested before he could enter the tournament. Just before the test was about to start Miki had stepped in asking if he could be allowed to test Haru instead, both Silva and Haru had been surprised to say the least, but Silva had eventually agreed because time was running short and this would allow Silva to go and test another shaman that had not yet been invited to the tournament.

What came next was something that Zhou would prefer to forget;

Flashback

"_The rules are simple. When the fight starts you'll have five minutes to land an attack. If you succeed, you'll enter the tournament; if you fail you won't, understand?" Miki asked Haru from behind his bird shaped mask._

"_Perfectly, but why are you doing this? Don't I have to fight a proper Patch for it to be official?" Haru asked._

"_Don't worry about it being official. I'm an old friend of the Patch. If I say you've passed, then you've passed regardless of whether you fought an actual Patch, and I'm doing this because I'm curious; both your parents were strong Shaman, and I want to see what you're capable of. Any more questions?" Miki replied._

"_Yeah, when do we start?" Haru asked as Zhou entered his weapon and formed the green Aura Blade. _

"_So you mastered Oversoul; this should make things more interesting…the test starts now!" Miki's tone became stern as he uttered those words. He adopted a fighting stance and his two yamagami spirits appeared at his side._

_Haru instantly charged forward and feinted an attack to Miki's side. Miki sidestepped the attack, but Haru had been expecting this and immediately attempted to sweep Miki's legs out from under him. However, Miki avoided the attack by jumping over Haru's legs and slamming his knee into Haru's face, which sent him sprawling across the ground._

"_You're fast, but not fast enough I'm afraid; it will take more than simple tricks for you to pass this test." Miki commented as he watched Haru rise to his feet._

_Haru scowled as he heard Miki. He quickly got back to his feet and this time approached more cautiously; Miki was obviously a lot stronger than he looked, so Haru wouldn't be able to just charge in. _

"_If you don't want a simple trick," Haru said as he edged closer, "will you settle for a distract-" Before Haru finished speaking, he lunged forward and attempted a strike to the ribs, but Miki deflected the blow with his wrist guards and then sent a right hook at Haru's head. Haru ducked under the blow, which gave him a free shot at Miki's midsection. Just as Haru was about to strike, Miki's free hand grasped Haru's sword arm, twisted round, and then flipped Haru over his shoulder, causing Haru to land on his back. Miki then jumped back a few feet as Haru regained his feet._

"_If this is the best you can do, then I am disappointed. I expected much more." Miki commented offhandedly._

"_Disappointment is part of life…" Haru told the older shaman as he took off his coat. It fell to the ground with a loud thud, "…but then so are surprises." _

_Haru darted forward with inhuman speed and lunged at Miki before he had time to react, but just as Haru's blade reached him Miki vanished into thin air and reappeared a few feet away. Haru darted forward once more only to have the same thing happen again._

"_Are you swatting at a fly or trying to hit me?Do you needglasses or perhaps a haircut?" Miki suggested casually; he was obviously not taking the fight seriously and was just toying with Haru. _

"_This from someone who wears a chicken mask" Haru said with a scowl. He rushed towards Miki again and attempted to perform a combo of attacks but Miki easily evaded each strike, he leapt back a few feet as Haru caught his breath, Miki thenpretended to yawn._

"_I already told you that speed won't be enough, compared to me your no faster than a tortoise, you're a shaman you have other skills at your disposal. If you want to pass this test you'll have to use them." Miki informed his opponent._

_Haru stared at Miki for a moment and a small smile crept onto his face. He ran his hand over his blade, changing it from green to the blue Spirit Blade, and at the same time he said, "If you insist." Haru then vanished in a gust of wind, reappeared behind Miki, and plunged his weapon through Miki's back. _

"_Better, but I'm afraid it doesn't count." Haru whipped around and saw Miki standing a little way off to his left. He then looked back at the Miki he had attacked and saw it transform into one of Miki's yamagami spirits. Haru withdrew his sword from the spirit and it promptly returned to its master._

_Haru went on the offensive again, but each time he was about to strike, Miki would vanish and then appear somewhere else at random._

"_Aren't you even going to fight back!" Haru asked in irritation; he had never faced an opponent that was faster than him before, and as his entire fighting style was based on his usual speed advantage he was getting angry very quickly._

_Miki looked at Haru with apparent surprise, "You want me to attack to you? You can't even keep up with me."_

"_Stop wasting time and fight!" Haru said with growing irritation._

"_Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the time limit; let's see you have two minutes left. Is that enough for you or do you want to give up?" Miki replied casually, which further infuriated Haru._

"_All right, if you wanted to piss me off, then mission accomplished." Haru lowered his head and focused on his weapon. The blade changed once more, darkening in colour until it was pitch black; blue lightening then began to crackle down it and Haru's amulet was enveloped in a faint red glow. _

_Miki watched this with interest and noted that Haru was using a lot more furyoku than before. "You'll have to do more than just increase the amount of furyoku you use. That might be enough for a single opponent but what if you're outnumbered?" As if to demonstrate his point, Miki's two yamagami spirits turned into clones of their master and all three adopted a fighting stance, and seemed ready to attack._

"_If you're outnumbered, you even the odds." Haru said with a dark grin. He held his sword in front of him; the blue lightening that ran down the blade suddenly arced out both left and right in front of its wielder and formed six copies of Haru. Each of them was equipped with a deadly black blade and each looked at the Miki with the same dark grin. They raised their weapons and formed a line with the original Haru in the centre._

_Miki seemed unimpressed at this display, "So you can duplicate yourself, but creating duplicates requires a lot of focus. How well can you keep that focus in a fight?" As Miki said this, his two clones disappeared and reappeared in front of the original Haru, both attempting a flying kick to the face._

"_Sphere!" the two duplicates on either side of Haru raised their arms, and black orbs appeared around the two Miki clones, trapping them in mid-flight._

"_I think you'll find that I can keep my focus just fine." Haru told the older shaman with a slight smirk on his face._

"_I wouldn't get complacent if I were you. You only have about twenty seconds left." Miki informed Haru._

_Haru narrowed his eyes as he heard this and suddenly four of the duplicates vanished in a gust of wind leaving the two that had trapped the Miki clones. Haru's four duplicates reappeared around Miki and they all closed in to attack. However, Miki managed to somehow evade or block every attack that was thrown at him and managed to scatter the duplicates with a spinning kick that knocked them all back by five feet. _

_Miki scanned the scene in front of him; two of the duplicates still had his yamagami spirits trapped, and the other four Haru duplicates were lying on the ground in front of him and they wouldn't be getting back up in a hurry. Miki sighed; he had hoped that Haru would do better than this. Miki took in the scene in front of him again and realised that something was wrong; while all of the duplicates were either busy or unable to move he couldn't see the original anywhere… _

"_Shadow Strike!" Miki twisted around and saw an arc of black light hurtling towards him, and he only just had time to leap into the air before it crashed into the spot he had been occupying a moment before._

"_Big mistake." Haru appeared above Miki and managed a slash to his back before he could react. This was then followed up by a kick to the head, and it sent Miki crashing to the ground below. However, Miki managed to flip up and land on his feet in a crouching position. The attacks hadn't really hurt Miki that much; if anything it was only his pride that was injured. Miki chuckled to himself as he thought about what had just happened; he had lowered his guard for less than a second, but Haru had managed to take advantage of it. Maybe he would be able to help Yoh later._

End Flashback

Although they had passed the test it had been a close call and Haru realised that he was a long way off from becoming a serious competitor in the shaman tournament.

"He should be gone by now, I can't sense him" Haru muttered under his breath, Zhou looked up; he had gotten so lost in thought he had forgotten that his master was there.

Haru looked up at the sky and cursed silently; he had spent far too much time talking with Miki for it was now mid afternoon, and one of the things Haru did not want to do was spend the night in the desert. He pulled out the map Hao had given him and cursed again; Yoh and the others were at least five hours ahead of him, there was no way he could catch up to them before nightfall. Haru scanned the map looking for any landmark or settlement that could provide shelter. The only settlement was about fifty miles away and it was in the opposite direction from Yoh and the others. Haru sighed and examined the map one last time; it appeared that Yoh and the others were heading for a network of canyons called "Red River Canyons". Haru would have to keep going all night in order to catch up with them and needless to say he wasn't pleased, however as there wasn't anything he could about it he rolled up the map and started following the road infront of him. While he walking he was wondered if Luca had delivered Macchi and Mari their 'presents'.

* * *

Luca looked at the two packages that had been left with him, Haru hadn't told him what was in them, only that Macchi and Mari should be the ones to open them and that it was just to show that there were no 'hard feelings'. 

Both packages were wrapped in blue paper and each one was addressed to either Macchi or Mari. Luca debated with himself for a while; he was not naive enough to think that the packages actually contained any type of gift but that they were probably rigged with a type of booby trap. Luca continued to stare at the packages while he thought. He was under no obligation to deliver them, he could just throw them in the trash, that was what he should do. However another part of himself wanted to see just what Haru had come up with; Luca had seen him mixing various chemicals rather haphazardly before he had handed Luca the 'presents'. This was the main reason why Luca hadn't tried to open them to see what they were; he'd experienced enough explosions in the past 72 hours thank you very much, however there was that part of him that was curios. There was also another part of him that was annoyed at Macchi for being the third person to interrupt his extremely volatile experiment just as it was about to near completion, because of this Luca had now gone almost four days without sleep and was understandably annoyed with the hyper red headed girl. Finally coming to a decision Luca picked up both packages and walked out of his room; he would leave the packages in each girls respective room and let them decide for themselves whether or not to open it. After coming to a decision and then carrying it through Luca headed back to his room for some much needed sleep.

* * *

Hao, accompanied by Macchi and Mari appeared in the hotel lobby in a burst of flames, luckily however the new hotel receptionist (the other one had quit after a rather unpleasant encounter with Bill) was asleep while pretending to read a paper and therefore didn't notice anything. 

"Now then, I need you two to inform everyone to be ready to leave in one hour and they are to meet me on the roof, understood?" Hao instructed the two Hanagumi members. They nodded their heads but otherwise didn't reply. Hao grinned slightly; he could tell that they were curios about a great many things but they were wisely keeping quiet and not asking any questions just as he had told them, although the fact that both girls seemed exhausted to the point where they were almost asleep on their feet might have had something to do with their lack of questions.

"Good, now I have something to take care of, I will be back in one hour" and with that Hao disappeared in another burst of flames.

Macchi and Mari looked at each other for a second; both of them were hot and tired from their encounter with the X-Laws and they didn't feel like wandering around the hotel telling everyone the same thing over and over again.

"Hey Mari could you…" Macchi started to say

"No" the blonde puppet master replied almost as soon as Macchi started speaking.

"Aww, come on Mari I'm really tired" Macchi complained

"No" Mari repeated again in a more determined voice.

The two girls started glaring daggers at each other, but as both of them were on the point of exhaustion it seemed that glaring was the only thing they were going to do.

It was at this point that Opacho walked past, catching both girls attention. Macchi raised an eyebrow and shifted her eyes in Opacho's direction and Mari nodded.

"Opacho…" both girls said together.

Five minutes later, after promising to buy Opacho something in Patch village, both girls headed off to their respective rooms. Macchi reached her room first and fumbled with the key card before swiping it through the lock and opening the door. All Macchi wanted to do right now was lie down and go to sleep. However as she made her way over to her bed she noticed there was already something on there; it was roughly the size and shape of a cigar box and was wrapped in blue paper. Macchi walked over and picked it up with a puzzled look on her face. She examined the package for a moment wondering who could have left it for her and then turned it over and saw the words "To Mari" written on the other side. Macchi's eyes widened slightly in surprise; who would have brought something for Mari? They hadn't met anyone new here except for Haru and Mia. Haru didn't exactly strike Macchi as the gift giving type and Mia had never had a chance to go and buy anything since she had always been training.

Macchi shrugged her shoulders and picked up the package and started towards her door intending to take the package straight to Macchi, after all this was just what the blonde shaman needed, it might actually cheer her up, although maybe that was being a little to hopeful. In any case it should make her a little less depressed. Macchi opened her door and almost walked straight into Mari who had just been about to knock on her door, in her hands she held a package identical to Macchi's.

"Uh, swap?" Macchi suggested after a moment. Mari nodded and both girls exchanged packages, checking their names and then looking for any clue as to who could have sent them. Finding nothing both girls sat down on Macchi's bed still looking at their 'gifts' after a moment Mari put hers down.

"Huh? Aren't you gonna open it?" Macchi asked in confusion.

Mari shook her head, "Mari has a bad feeling about this" she said quietly.

"Aww come on, it's not like it's gonna explode or anything" Macchi tried to persuade her friend, however Mari remained adamant.

"Fine then, I'll still gonna open mine though" Macchi replied childishly, before Mari could protest Macchi had ripped off the paper, revealing an ordinary wooden box.

"See, nothing happened" Macchi told her friend in a taunting tone. She then lifted the lid of the box and there was a small explosion like that of cherry bomb and both Mari and Macchi were engulfed in brown cloud of smoke…

* * *

There was a flash of flame and Hao appeared near the village of Seminoa, he blinked his eyes a few times and then took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a park in the middle of a grove of trees, they appeared to be Sakura trees and this surprised Hao slightly, although it was a pleasant surprise. He had found a great appreciation for these plants in his first life, especially when they were in bloom as they were now. Hao just sat for a few minutes under their leaves and enjoyed the peace and serenity they brought him. 

Eventually Hao got up and wandered away from the trees; he had a task to accomplish. He walked on for about ten minutes until he found what he was looking for; a house, larger than the others surrounding it, the building was fenced off, some of the stonework resembled creatures only seen in nightmares and curtains were drawn across every window. Even though the building was in good condition it had a decidedly eerie feel to it. All in all it looked like your classic haunted house, although Hao doubted that any spirit would choose to reside there. As Hao approached the house the front door suddenly opened and a woman who appeared to be in her late twenty's stepped out. She had long dark hair and was wearing cultural Indian clothing, there were also painted markings on one side of her face.

"Who are you?" the woman asked darkly

"You don't recognise me? How disappointing; I would have thought that after watching your ancestors die at my hands so many times you'd recognise me at once" Hao said with a wry grin.

Recognition flashed in the woman's eyes and her face took on a shocked expression, "No it can't be… that was five hundred years ago"

"Actually Lilirara, it was five hundred years and five days ago" Hao informed Lilirara calmly. "I've come to take care of some loose ends"

"What do you mean?" Lilirara asked knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Must I spell everything out for you?" Hao sighed, "You have knowledge of the tournament five hundred years ago. Therefore, you are capable of informing shaman of how to reach Patch village. I have let you live this long so that my other half could discover how to proceed in the tournament, now that has happened I don't require you to tell anyone else the location of Patch village. So I am here to get rid of you." Hao said all of this slowly as if he were speaking to child and then summoned his SOF (spirit of fire), which then grabbed Lilirara in one giant hand and incinerated her before she even had a chance to scream.

The SOF vanished as quickly as it had arrived and Hao turned round without a word and made his way back to the Sakura grove. He had just under an hour until he had to return, until then he was going to relax. He made his way over to one of the blooming cherry blossom trees and sat under its braches enjoying the shade it gave him from the sun.

"It's good to see someone else enjoying these trees for a change"

Hao opened one eye and saw an elderly lady wrapped in a black shawl and grey dress hunched over in front of him. As he hadn't sensed anyone approach that meant she was human, but as she wasn't a threat Hao just ignored her.

"I remember back when I was about your age" the old lady continued unperturbed, "My mother planted these trees and I thought they were the most beautiful things in the world. Nowadays though most people don't seem to agree with me. They just think they're a nuisance and need to be gotten rid of." The old paused for a moment and looked around her before turning back to Hao.

"Your lucky you came when you did these beauties won't be around for much longer"

"Hao opened his eyes again and looked at the old woman, "What do you mean?" he asked in a inquisitive voice.

"These trees are going to be torn down in a few days to make room for a new highway, because apparently we don't have enough roads already" the old woman replied bitterly. "I told them they had no right; they can't just keep taking from the world or soon there'd be nothing left, they gotta stop somewhere and if they won't stop by themselves then I'd do it for them, but no one listens to an old timer like me anymore"

Hao looked at the old woman again, she had just voiced, almost word for word, his ideals as if they were her own, "Why do you care?" Hao asked keeping his voice neutral.

The woman looked at Hao for a moment as if determining how to answer, "Someone has to lad, otherwise soon there'll be nothing to care about. People these days are causing more damage than ever before and they don't even realise it. Someone has to tell them what they're doing and try and get them to stop.

"It won't make a difference" Hao said contemptuously, "Mankind can't change its ways, it will always destroy, it doesn't know anything else"

"If that's true lad, why did my mother plant these trees? She brought them all the way from Japan and back then that was no easy task I can tell you" the old woman replied.

"One exception does not make up for all of mankind's damage" Hao answered evenly

"No it doesn't, but it's a start and the first step is always small. People are beginning to learn, your proof of that yourself. Your only what 13-14?" the old woman asked.

Hao's familiar grin appeared on his face as he replied, "Not quite, I'm older than I look." He stood up and brushed himself off, "It was interesting talking with you but I'm afraid I have to go" he started to walk away and then turned back.

"Where is that construction crew you mentioned earlier?" he asked

The woman pointed to her left and answered, "About thirty miles that way, they're working their way here although it will take them a few days. Why do you ask?"

"I thought I'd pay them a visit" Hao replied as he wandered off.

Hao waited until he was out of sight and then summoned his SOF and took to the sky searching for the construction crew; sakura trees were one of his favourite plants and he wasn't about to let them get torn down just so humans could have another road to drive on.

Suddenly a loud mechanical noise disturbed his thoughts, Hao looked up and smiled; he'd found them. He could see black smoke in distance and made his way over, not bothering to try and hide himself or his giant spirit. Hao floated directly above the human workers and looked down. Bulldozers were tearing up the land and vegetation around them and men with chainsaws were cutting down the trees that were in way. The fallen trees were then dragged into a pile and carted off by a huge truck. There were even some humans with flamethrowers burning the land on either side of the road that was being built just to make sure that nothing would grow there again.

Hao's usual smile vanished from his face and his eyes seemed to blaze with fire; _this is why humans must be eradicated, _He thought to himself_, they take from the land without any thought of giving in return, they steal and rape the earth leaving behind only a hollow shell of what used to exist, and for every human that tries to give something back a thousand more appear to destroy it again. They must be stopped soon, before it is too late, I cannot afford to fail again._ As Hao was thinking this he floated down to the ground and then waved a hand at the construction crew.

They were instantly covered in a wave of fire, which stretched down the road they had made, killing anyone that got in its way. Many died immediately but some lingered behind for a few moments and their screams could be heard a mile away before eventually dieing out, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.

Hao stood, staring with malevolence at what the humans had done. They had uprooted many trees and much of the surrounding vegetation had been burned to ground before the bulldozers had ploughed through the earth. Hao sighed as he looked upon the devastation, this spot had once been as beautiful as the Sakura grove he had appeared in, now because of humans it was no more than a pile of dirt. Shaking his head Hao left the scene in his trademark pillar of fire.

* * *

An image of Haru walking through the desert appeared in the air. Watching the image were five female shamans; ranging from about six years old to around mid thirties. 

At the front of the group was a teenage girl with green hair, she appeared to be in a high school uniform; plaid skirt and a brown blouse and white stockings. She was also wearing a rather large pair of glasses. The glasses were glowing with a blue aura, which extended to the image air of Haru walking through the desert.

"I can't believe our luck!" a blonde woman exclaimed, "We may have lost those other boys but now we don't need them! All we need to do is get that map off this boy and we'll be able to reach Patch village by ourselves!" the woman crowed proudly.

"That's assuming he will just handover the map" the green haired girl replied in a bored tone of voice.

"If he doesn't hand it over then we'll just take him out, he doesn't look that tough" a red headed woman answered as she oversouled her giant hammer. The other members of the group backed away quickly.

"Hey watch it you nearly hit me!" the small child of the group exclaimed.

"Yeah Sally calm down, you've got a major anger management problem!" a girl with light brown hair retorted. She was wearing a green skirt as well as a green shirt of varying shades.

Sally turned round to face the two girls and started brandishing her giant spirit hammer and the two girls quickly backed away even further.

"That's enough Sally, we don't need to waste anymore time. Lily do you know where that boy is?" the blonde woman enquired of the green haired schoolgirl.

"Yes he's about 20 miles to the east" Lily replied as she disengaged oversoul and her glasses lost their glowing blue aura.

"Perfect we'll catch up to him in no time and once we've got that map we'll be resting easy in Patch village" the blonde haired woman started to laugh and this attracted some strange looks from her comrades.

"Sheesh, talk about being over dramatic" the brown haired girl muttered to the small child.

"Yeah she's even starting to embarrass me, why does Sharona have to do that all the time?" the child replied.

Sharona heard this and her face turned red although it wasn't possible to tell if it was from anger or embarrassment.

"Enough talking! Into the van we don't need to waste anymore time!" Sharona shouted, and the group proceeded to get into a red SUV and then started driving away.

After a few minutes of driving Lily told Sharona, "East is the other way"

* * *

Haru looked up at the sky; the sun was low in the sky now and its last rays of light were glaring him the eye, acting as a constant reminder that he would have to keep moving all night, as the temperature dropped to below zero temperatures. Even now the heat of the dessert was quickly fading and Haru was glad that he'd had the foresight to have his coat fitted with a new thermal lining which would hopefully keep him warm over the course of night. 

"Where's a bus stop when you need one?" Haru muttered under his breath. He'd been walking for hours and he hadn't seen any sign of civilisation apart from the paved road he'd been following; not a single car, bus, truck or even a motorbike. Haru had contemplated just stopping for a moment and sticking out his thumb in the classic hitchhiker pose, but he had quickly dismissed the thought; it wasn't as though someone would magically show up in the middle of nowhere just to give a hitchhiker a lift…right?

It was as Haru was thinking this that he heard the hum of a car engine. He turned round and saw a red SUV coming down the road behind him…

* * *

Sometime later… 

"What's taking them so long?" Ren asked in annoyance as the SK group sat on the ground in front of the entrance to a maze of canyons, which towered before them like city skyscrapers.

"You gotta give them some time Ren it is a pretty big canyon" Yoh replied in his usual easygoing manner.

"Are we even sure this is the right way?" Ren continued in the same irritated tone

"Well according to the Seminoa's, we're meant to follow the valley of the red river, and this is the only place nearby that has a river" said Choco as he pulled out his notebook and flipped through the pages.

"In other words you have no idea" Ren replied

"Yoh!" Amidamaru descended to the groups level in spirit ball form followed closely by Kororo and Mick.

"Hey Amidamaru, did you find a way through?" Yoh asked cheerfully

Amidamaru shook his head ruefully, "I'm afraid not Yoh; the canyon twists and turns at every opportunity and appears to be a dead end".

"Aww man, this is so not cool!" Horo moaned as he kicked a rock by his foot.

"Actually I thought it was going to be…" Choco began but was immediately struck down by both Ren and Horo.

"What have I told you about making jokes" Ren said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah man take a hint" Horo muttered.

The sound of an engine could be heard in the distance and the group looked up to see a dust cloud creeping towards them in the distance, as it came closer it slowly took on the form of a large SUV.

"Not them again!" Horo moaned, "Why do they keep following us?"

The SUV pulled up alongside the group and window slid down to reveal Sharona of the Lily Five

"Hi there boys long time no see" Sharona said

"Not long enough" muttered Ren

"tsk, tsk, that not very polite, especially after we went to all this trouble to do you a favour" Sharona replied with a smug look on her face.

"Eh? What are you talking about?" Horo said suspiciously.

"We ran into someone in the desert who said he knew you guys, so we decided to help him out" Sharona answered.

"That's an interesting way of putting it" replied a bored voice.

Everyone looked around for the source of the voice and saw Haru leaning against the side of the SUV. The gang just stared at him for a second; it had been two months since they saw him and the change of hair colour meant they didn't recognise him straight away. After a few seconds though realization dawned in Yoh's eyes and he waved his hand.

"Hey Haru, good to see you" Yoh said in way of a greeting.

Haru nodded in response, "You guys are looking for Patch village right? Mind if I join you?" Haru asked.

Ren looked as though he was about to protest but before he could say anything Yoh butted in.

"Yeah sure, the more the merrier, right guys?" Yoh asked beaming at the others

Haru grinned slightly and started to make his way over only to be stopped when Ren pointed his Kwan-do at his throat.

"Wait just a minute, why should we let you join us? After all we already know where Patch village is, we don't need your help" Ren told Haru.

Haru raised an eyebrow at this, "if you already know where Patch village why were you just sitting there?"

Ren didn't lower his weapon but he glared at Haru and his spiked hair seemed to grow slightly.

Haru sighed and pulled something out from under his coat, "Tell you what if you let me join up I'll show you this map of Patch Village"

"What! How the hell did you get a map of Patch Village?" Horo practically yelled.

"Yes how did you come into possession of such a thing" Rio asked

"I'm well informed" Haru said cryptically, "So what do you say?"

Ren lowered his weapon and muttered "fine"

* * *

Author: Once again major apologies for the long time between updates, i just haven't been able to find time to work on this story. Hopefully I'll be able to work on this during the christmas holidays but I'm not promisisng anything. 

IMPORTANT: for my next chapter would you like meto concentrate mainly on Yoh or Hao'sgroup or a little of both? I'm not sure which group to focus on, so send me your reviewsit will help me plan out my next chapter.

Also according to the new rules of the fanfiction website this will be the last time I respond to reviews in a story, after this I will be using the new "review response" feature to reply to reviews via email. If you are leaving ananonymous reviews and you want me to respond to it please include an email address so I can contact you.

To my Reviewer(s)

nat274: yeah I have a feeling that Hao fans might try something like that so I have tried to shift Hao back into his stereotypical role and if people don't like that then I'll just write him the way I want. Anyway thanks for the review I really appreciate it, sorry for taking so long to update.

ciabatta: Uh, thanks?

sweetlips: don't worry I completely understand, I've been practically burried in extra work for the past few months myself.I'm glad your enjoying the story and I'm sorry for the long time it took me to update.

Azure: thanks for the ideas butI already havesomething in mind for Haru's spirit control,it's not that different from what you suggested and you'll get to read about it hopefully next chapter or the one after that.

knux33: What did you think of the fight at the beginning? Too short? Too long? Either way let me know and I'll try and improve the next fight scene when I get around to writing it. Glad your enjoying my story and thanks for taking the time to review.

HAO-Addictive: first up sorry for not replying to you email, butI have been really busy. If you take a look at my profileI think you'll find what your looking for. Also sorry for not talking/typing to you in a while but I never seem have any spare time, hopefully once we get into late decemnber I'll have more free time.Anyway glad your enjoying the story, I can't wait for you to post your next story.

Shackle:I hope you took note of the what I did with Hao's character in this chapter. I've placed him back in his stereotypical 4KIDS role. Although he may break out of it now and again depending on whatI decide to do with the plot. Also Haru's hair will change back to black once he meets back up with Anna and Mia so that will be next chapter or the one after that.

Kenarina Asakura: did you change your pen name? I'm sure you used to call yourself "zeke yoh asakura". About reviewing your stories; asI have saidI do not have a lot of time and you have written quite a few stories. So in your next review if you pick one story you want meto look at I will try and write a decent review for it.

Mikauzoran: sorry for not reviewing your latest chapters, hopefullyI will get some time over the weekend. anyway thanks for you positive input it always helps. The last chapter was kind of uneventful andI have tried to remedy that in this chapter although it still isn't completely action packed. hope you like how iIdid Hao;even though I stuck in his stereotypical 4KIDS roleI tried to give him a reason for his actions. Haru and Mia should meet up next chapter, hopefully.I still haven't gotten around to writing it yet. As to what Mikihisa is plotting you'll just have to wait and see...

PLEASE REMEMBER TO REVIEW!


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